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New Delhi: India's Left parties that prop up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government yesterday issued a fresh warning on the India-US nuclear deal stating that the future of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government depended on what decision it took on the contentious pact.
After a discussion with his smaller allies, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) General Secretary Prakash Karat stepped up pressure on the government by seeking a meeting of the UPA-Left nuclear committee on the issue by March 15.
Cautioning the government against going ahead with the agreement despite opposition from the Left and other parties, the CPM said in an article headlined 'Turning Point Has Arrived' in the party mouthpiece People's Democracy: "It will amount to a gross violation of the majority opinion in parliament".
'Harmful step'
"The Left parties will take all the necessary steps to stop the government from taking such a harmful step," stated the article by a 'political commentator', believed to be echoing the views of Karat.
"It is for the Congress leadership to decide whether it wants to be seen as kowtowing to the pressure of the [US President George W] Bush administration or acting democratically and heeding the voice of parliament and the people. And this decision has to be a quick and clear one.
"The future of this government depends on the decision they will take," the CPM said.
Karat, who had discussions with Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja yesterday morning, wrote to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads the 15-member UPA-Left committee, asking Mukherjee to convene an urgent meeting of the panel to inform members about the latest developments.
The CPM general secretary also spoke to leaders of the other Left allies - Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Forward Bloc - before sending the letter to Mukherjee.
'Unfortunate statements'
The article termed recent statements of both Manmohan Singh and Mukherjee in parliament as unfortunate and said it amounted to harping on the government's efforts to go ahead with the deal.
"If the government thinks that after arriving at an agreed text with the IAEA on a safeguards agreement they can proceed to take the next steps for operationalising the agreement, they are mistaken," it said.
The CPM reiterated that the Left would not give the government the green light to finalise the safeguard agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or take the next step to go to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) given its basic objection to the Hyde Act and the 123 agreement.
The article also lampooned the claims in the media that in its negotiations with the IAEA, New Delhi had managed to get an agreement that would overcome "all the problems posed by the Hyde Act and its 123 progeny".
"This is, to use an American term, pure baloney! Neither the Hyde Act nor the 123 agreement grants lifetime fuel supply assurance to safeguarded reactors," it said.
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