No Need to be Scared of Deal: Rahul Gandhi

The Economic Times
Mar 27, 2008

NEW DELHI: In a show of support for the Indo-US nuclear deal, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who is on a tour of poll-bound Karnataka, said on Wednesday that India need not be scared or lack confidence in dealing with anything or anyone. The statement is likely to enthuse the pro-deal sections within the Congress to push for moving from the IAEA to the NSG stage of negotiations. The statement is also significant as it characterises the Left’s, and to a lesser extent the BJP’s, opposition to the deal in terms of being scared and lacking in confidence. The Left has been consistently arguing that by signing the 123 agreement and accepting the provisions of the Hyde Act, India will come under pressure to compromise its independent foreign policy. On the Indo-US nuclear deal, my thinking is that in India we need not be scared of or lack confidence in dealing with anything or anybody, Mr Gandhi said while talking to students at the TMA Pai Institute in Mangalore.