By IANS
New Delhi : The Left parties Friday termed India’s deepening strategic ties with the US and its civilian nuclear agreement with Washington as a “national tragedy” and warned of “serious consequences” if New Delhi went ahead with the deal.
“This government is surviving on the Left parties’ support and it is a national tragedy that it is going into a partnership of strategic alliance with the imperialist powers,” Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Gurudas Dasgupta said.
At a press conference jointly addressed by both CPI and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leaders, Dasgupta said: “This is an untenable situation. The Left cannot turn its eyes away from it.”
Announcing the Left’s strategy for the monsoon session that began Friday, CPI-M leader Basudev Acharya said: “The prime minister has said that the government will not go back on the deal. We are also saying that we will oppose the agreement inside and outside parliament tooth and nail.”
The four Left parties, which have expressed their displeasure over the government’s deepening ties with the US, have asked the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government not to proceed further with the recently finalised civilian nuclear agreement with Washington.
The Left extends crucial outside support to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government.
CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat has also warned that the government would have to face the consequences if it did not take into consideration the objections raised by the communists. The Left has said the 123 agreement could not be seen in isolation but in the context of overall strategic relations with the US.
Echoing the same sentiments, CPI leader D. Raja said if the government “does not concede to concerns expressed by the Left and put on hold the deal, the consequences will be serious”.
However, the Left leaders were not forthcoming when asked about the consequences.
Dasgupta reminded that the Left was a “sizeable and considerable force” in the country and the government knew the “consequences” if it did not agree with its concerns. “The prime minister knows the consequences.”
After his Left allies rejected the Indo-US nuclear deal, Manmohan Singh, in a telephonic conversations with its leaders, made it clear to them that the pact will not be renegotiated as the cabinet had approved it.