The Congress leadership and the UPA government are propagating that the Indo-US nuclear deal is absolutely essential for India 's energy security. A massive disinformation campaign has been mounted that nuclear energy is a solution not only to the shortage of electricity in the country but also an answer to the oil price rise. This is nothing but a cover to promote the strategic ties with the US . As it is difficult to promote India-US strategic ties directly, therefore the recourse to false claims that nuclear energy will at one stroke reduce not only our oil consumption and but also remove our power shortages. Let us take the issue of oil first. More than 50% of India 's oil consumption is in the transport sector – cars, buses and trucks and the rest in petrochemicals and fertilisers. Only a small amount is used in the power plants. Nuclear energy has very little to do with oil – it cannot be used as a substitute for oil; unless the Government experts have found a new way to burn uranium directly in cars and buses! On the other hand, Natural Gas from Iran would insulate India substantively from the oil price shocks. The Government has been dragging its feet over the Iran Gas Pipeline project at the behest of the US and in consideration of the Hyde Act.
