Behind the Front

The Left, in its fight with the UPA over the nuclear deal, has created a formidable defence team — two nuclear scientists, a former diplomat, a power-sector analyst and a scientist form the Communists’ backroom experts, who prepare the formation’s responses and stance on technical issues and diplomatic nuances regarding the agreement with the US. A G Gopalakrishnan, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, and A N Prasad, former director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, are in the team that also has A D Damodaran, who used to be in the Nuclear Fuels Complex. Damodaran is a favoured person, being the son-in-law of CPI(M) ideologue and former party general secretary EMS Namboodiripad. And then there are MK Bhadrakumar, former diplomat, who deals with the foreign policy aspects of the nuclear deal, and Prabir Purkayastha of the Delhi Science Forum, who works out the numbers as a power-sector analyst to boost the argument that nuclear power does not come cheap.