Congress party takes a dig at Modi Government over nuke deal with Sri Lanka
Wednesday, 18 February 2015 00:11
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Reuters: India’s opposition Congress party took a dig at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday (16) after the Narendra Modi-led Government signed a nuclear energy agreement with Sri Lanka.
“If the Government of India has indeed signed a nuclear agreement with Sri Lanka, they should keep in mind that it was the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Agreement which was pioneered by the UPA Government and opposed by the current government when they were in the opposition which opened the doors for such initiatives to fructify,” said a leader of Congress party, Manish Tewari.
This deal is India’s first breakthrough with the new government of the tiny Indian Ocean island where China has been building ports and highways in a diplomatic push in recent years.
Under the deal, India will help Sri Lanka build its nuclear energy infrastructure, including training of personnel, the Indian Foreign Ministry said.
Later, India could also sell light small-scale nuclear reactors to Sri Lanka which wants to establish 600 MW of nuclear capacity by 2030, a Sri Lankan official and an Indian analyst said earlier in the day.
The deal came as President Maithripala Sirisena began a visit to India, his first trip abroad since he swept to power in January, which has provided New Delhi with an opening to repair ties that had become tense under his predecessor.
“The bilateral agreement on civil nuclear cooperation is yet another demonstration of our mutual trust,” Modi said in a statement after the deal was sealed.
India had grown increasingly wary of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s pursuit of closer ties with China, which became a key supporter of the island’s economy after its 26-year-civil war ended in 2009.
China has built a seaport in the south of the country and signed a deal to develop a $1.5 billion port next to the commercial port in Colombo, raising fears Beijing is seeking influence in the island state with which New Delhi has had historical ties.
Ties worsened further after the Rajapaksa Government allowed Chinese submarines to dock last year.
The latest development in India-Sri Lanka relations has not gone down well with some Tamils.
Tamil activist, Thirumurugan Gandhi, also the founder of the 17 May Movement for the cause of Eelam Tamil society’s struggle for a separate Eelam Nation, criticised the growing ties between the two nations.
“We are not very comfortable with this kind of development with Sri Lankan Government because you should look at Sri Lanka not from a commercial point of view, you should see the political point of view. Singhalese mindset is not pro-Indian. When you have such kind of a deal with them it is environmentally disastrous to Tamil Nadu as well as the south region and also you cannot always trust Sri Lankan government, they always want to use the geo-political factors for its own benefits,” said Gandhi.
Modi said the two countries also agreed to expand defence cooperation, but gave no details.
Since coming to power last year, Modi has reached out to neighbours, offering to build power stations and ports, in a bid to push back against China.
Next month he plans to travel to Sri Lanka and the Maldives where too Beijing is seen to be expanding its diplomacy as part of a strategy to build a network of ports in the Indian Ocean through which much of its trade and energy supplies transit.
