By IANS
New Delhi : India’s Left parties Tuesday joined the growing chorus of opposition to the civil nuclear pact with the US, rejecting it and seeking a review of the deal and the “burgeoning strategic relationship with the US”.
The communist rejection of the pact, a cornerstone of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh government’s foreign policy, follows its repudiation by the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well.
“The Left parties, after their careful assessment of the text of the 123 pact, are studying it in the context of India’s burgeoning strategic relationship with the US and are unable to accept the agreement,” said a statement by the four-party Left alliance comprising the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and All India Forward Bloc.
In words that recalled the BJP’s condemnation of the deal, the Left parties pledged to “press for a constitutional amendment for bringing international treaties and bilateral agreements for approval in parliament”.
The Left, which provides crucial outside support to the ruling coalition, also called upon the government not to proceed further with the operationalising of the agreement.
“There has to be a review of the strategic aspects of the India-US relations in parliament,” CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat told reporters.
“This 123 agreement should not be seen in isolation but in the context of the strategic alliance with the US and the Hyde Act passed by the US,” he said.
The Left and BJP rejection of the deal will ensure that the nuclear din will dominate the monsoon session of parliament next week.
The 123 pact, which will enable civilian nuclear cooperation between India and the US after a gap of three decades, has attracted criticism on grounds that it implicitly accepts the supremacy of the Hyde Act, which seeks to circumscribe India’s options to test a nuclear device and impact on its strategic programme.
The BJP has demanded a vote in parliament on the nuclear deal before the government proceeds with other steps required to operationalise the pact.