New Delhi
8 May 2007
Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora on Tuesday
told the Rajya Sabha that "India will not be cowed down by any threat" and that the Iran-
Pakistan-India gas pipeline will not be jettisoned.
"I can assure ... India will not be cowed down by any threat. US Energy Secretary Samuel
Bodman asked me about the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline and we explained (our position)
... it is (none of) US business ... [we will] do whatever is good for us," a combative Mr
Deora told the members.
Mr Deora was responding to a question by Brinda Karat of CPI(M), who wanted to know
from him what the government proposed to do in the wake of the letter written by certain
American legislators to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asking India to back off from
her engagements with Iran to save the civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with the
US. "The US Senators have threatened ... we want a categorical assurance that the
government will not succumb to the pressure," Ms Karat said in her question.
The gas pipeline project is not making headway as the differences between Islamabad
and New Delhi over the tariff India is to pay to transport gas from Iran through the 1,035
kilometre stretch in Pakistan remain unresolved. The price, at which Iran is willing to
supply gas to India, is another area which requires meeting consensus.
Mr Deora, who visited Surat on Monday for commissioning a part of the 576 kilometres
of Dahej-Uran gas pipeline, told reporters there that the government was trying its best
to reach a solution between Iran, Pakistan and India on the pipeline. "The US is not
pressuring us on the Indo-Iranian gas pipeline issue. India is not a country which will
can be pressurised ... those who are thinking that the US is mounting pressure on us are
mistaken ... Once the gas pipeline is laid it will help both Pakistan and India get gas," he
said.
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