Sonia hails PM for Indo-US nuclear deal

NEW DELHI: Even as the Left parties have sought to put the government in the dock on the nuclear deal, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has congratulated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his team of "able negotiators" for hammering a treaty that "satisfies all the conditions" laid out before 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. In a "Letter to Congress Workers", Gandhi 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 in the interest of India." Ahead of the debate in Parliament, Gandhi also told partymen in the letter that throughout the negotiations with the US, Parliament, UPA allies, Left parties and the Opposition parties have been "kept informed". "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 in the latest issue of party journal Congress Sandesh .