Mounting possibly his strongest defence yet of the Indo-US nuclear co-operation agreement, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar on Wednesday said India was negotiating the pact from a position of strength and called attempts to isolate the country’s nuclear programme from the world “foolish”.

Armed with a brief powerpoint presentation for a panel discussion, Kakodkar said he wanted to put the controversial deal in “proper perspective”. While India’s indigenous programme had achieved much both in the civilian and military sectors, global co-operation was needed now to meet the country’s soaring energy needs and bridge the supply gap, he said.

“Let there be no fear that we are attempting civil nuclear co-operation from a position of weakness or from a donor-recipient position,” the AEC chairman said. “We are talking of engaging the world from a strong business position, from a position of India’s power requirements both in the short-term and the long-term. So that we can bridge the energy security gap that we foresee.”

Meticulously explaining the charts in his presentation, Kakodkar said India’s power requirement is forecast at 1,300 Gigawatts by 2050 and there would be a shortage of about 400 Gigawatts without the nuclear deal. A 10-year delay in operationalising the deal would lead to a shortfall of about 180 Gigawatts, he added.

India’s three-stage nuclear programme would not need international help in perpetuity, Kakodkar said, attempting to allay fears of some sections that New Delhi would be bound to global powers forever under the deal. “If civil nuclear co-operation opens up and we are able to import 40 Gigawatts of nuclear power production capability between 2012 and 2020, the deficit projected in 2050 will practically be wiped out,” he said.

... contd.