UPA govt mortaged foreign policy for nuke deal: CPM

NEW DELHI: Hitting back at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his attack on the Left, the CPM on Friday alleging his government had "mortgaged" India's foreign policy for Indo-US civil nuclear deal.

"Manmohan Singh government has mortgaged India's foreign policy for Indo-US nuclear deal," CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said from Madurai.

Further, he said the government "has given a commitment to buy 10,000 mega watts of American nuclear reactors, which will cost the country not less than Rs two lakh eighty thousand crore."

This would "only enrich the American corporations and make electricity beyond the reach of the common people", he charged.

Party Politburo member Sitaram Yechury asked why did the government "spend tens of crores of rupees just for lobbying in the US if it was only for meeting India's energy needs."

He said there was "another agenda which the PM is not revealing and that is what we are objecting to. It is that almost all our nuclear commerce has been tied up with the US and there are policy pressures too."

"The Prime Minister does not explain all this to the people. He should also explain how the strategic defence tie-up with America helps us in getting electricity for the people," Yechury, who is touring West Bengal, said.