The Times of India
We need nuclear power: Buddha 18 Sep 2007, 0429 hrs IST,TNN
KOLKATA: West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee created a flutter on Monday by stressing the importance of nuclear power at a time when his party, CPM (Communist Party of India (Marxist), is locked in a battle with the Centre over the Indo-US nuclear deal and party bigwigs, like politburo member Sitaram Yechury, are publicly arguing that nuclear power isn't critical and perhaps not even desirable.
The chief minister chose a big business forum, CII, to push for nuclear power. He said: "Those who are shouting against nuclear power should go by what our scientists say. We need nuclear power in our state too as we are over-dependent on thermal power, which is not good for the environment."
Within hours of the CM's remarks, his comrades in Delhi went on an overdrive to paper over the apparent difference between two senior politburo members - Bhattacharjee and Yechury - on nuclear power.
"Our party is not against nuclear power per se. We only want to stress that nuclear power constitutes only a small component of our energy security," explained CPM central secretariat member Nilotpal Basu. This, however, did not cut ice with Left analysts.
-- My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same poverty. - Jorge Louis Borges