Listen to Kalam, do the nuclear deal: PM

N-DEAL: PM Manmohan Singh on Saturday hoped the country would listen to the voices of wisdom.

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Keywords: Nuclear Deal, Kalam

New Delhi: Welcoming former President A P J Abdul Kalam's endorsement of the Indo-US nuclear deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday hoped the country would listen to his voice of wisdom.

"I hope the country will listen to the voices of wisdom," he told reporters when asked to comment on Kalam's remarks that India should go ahead with the Indo-US Nuclear deal as it would give a boost to country's nuclear programme.

Singh said Kalam was "a distinguished scientist and had been intimately involved with the Pokhran explosion".

Asked whether the Left should also listen to the "voices of wisdom", pat came the reply "people should listen to it".

Kalam had said India should go ahead with the nuclear deal and rejected suggestion that it would undermine the country's sovereignty.

He said the deal would give a boost to India's nuclear programme. "We have plenty of thorium but very small reserve of uranium and it will take a lot of time to develop thorium based nuclear reactor," Kalam told PTI in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.

Asked about the exchange of fire on the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan, Manmohan Singh said India had to be alert as there have been attempts of infiltration. At the same time, he expressed the hope that the Pakistani authorities would maintain peace and tranquility on the border.

He refused to comment on Human Resource Development Minister and Congress leader Arujun Singh's remark that the party lacked a transparent decision making process, but said Mr Arjun Singh was great leader of the party.

He sought to make light of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's statement that the Centre had failed to perform and was unable to check inflation, stating that these were expected in politics, particularly when elections were round the corner.