Congress president Sonia Gandhi has congratulated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his team of 'able negotiators' for chalking out a treaty that 'satisfies all the conditions' laid out before the Parliament.
"India and the US have signed a historic 123 agreement that lifts the decades-old embargo against nuclear trade with India. This will allow India to expand its energy sector to meet the growing demands of our economic growth and put an end to the power shortages that we are all familiar with," she said.
"We congratulate Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his team of able negotiators, who have hammered a treaty that satisfies all the conditions laid out before Parliament and brought home an agreement that is in the long-term interest of India," said Gandhi is a letter to her partymen.
Ahead of the crucial debate in Lok Sabha, Gandhi told Congress workers that throughout the negotiations with the US, the Parliament, United Progressive Alliance allies, the Left Front and the Opposition parties have been 'kept informed' about the nuclear deal.
"We have negotiated with America keeping our national interests in the forefront and India's nuclear defence programme has been in no way undermined," she said in the letter, published in the latest issue of party journal Congress Sandesh.
Noting that the agreement will help the country expand power generation for its agricultural sector and the growing industrial sector, Gandhi said that the deal is recognition of the achievements of India's scientists who have worked diligently to keep the indigenous nuclear programme alive.
In an apparent dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance frequently disrupting the proceedings at both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Gandhi expressed hope that the Opposition will use the Parliament to air their differences and "we will see less unnecessary House adjournments that waste precious time and the tax-payer's money".
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