By IANS
New Delhi : Unfazed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s tough talk on the India-US nuclear deal, the Left parties Saturday resolutely stuck to their opposition to the pact even as the Bharatiya Janata Party dared them to vote against the agreement in parliament.
“The prime minister and the government must realise that this agreement is not acceptable to the majority in parliament,” said Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), in a statement.
“As far as the approach to the government is concerned, we will take our own counsel,” Karat said in an obvious response to Manmohan Singh’s unusually strong criticism of the Left parties in an interview to The Telegraph in which he made it clear that they could withdraw support to the government if they liked but the deal would not be renegotiated.
“I told them that it is not possible to renegotiate the deal. It is a honourable deal, the cabinet has approved it, we cannot go back on it. I told them to do whatever they want to do, if they want to withdraw support, so be it,” Manmohan Singh told the Kolkata-based newspaper.
In response, Karat reiterated the Left parties’ insistence on placing the nuclear deal in the context of the strategic relationship between India and the US that they oppose, though they continue to support the government at the centre.
“We do not share the optimism that India can become ‘a great power with the help of the United States’. India is a country endowed with sufficient resources and self-confidence to carve out its own path of development,” Karat said.
“The Left parties have been consistently expressing their opposition to the July 2005 joint statement with the United States, which includes the nuclear cooperation agreement.
“After the Hyde Act was adopted by the US containing unacceptable conditions, the CPI-M has been asking the government not to proceed with the negotiations for the bilateral (123) agreement,” he clarified.
“The Left is an independent entity and we are not part of the government. We have every right to oppose the deal and air our differences,” Communist Party of India (CPI) national secretary D. Raja told IANS.
The government, however, sought to play down the prime minister’s tough talk on the nuclear deal.
“The prime minister has a right to talk to his allies. I am not aware of the prime minister threatening A, B or C,” said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi two days before Manmohan Singh is expected to make a statement in parliament on the nuclear deal.
After the PM’s statement Monday, parliament is scheduled to debate the nuclear deal Tuesday and Thursday.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Saturday said that the government would hold more consultations with the Left parties on the issue.
“We have already held discussions with them (Left leaders). We will hold more discussions with them,” Mukherjee told reporters on the sidelines of a lecture on India-Africa relations. He was responding to a question on whether the government was confident of getting the Left’s support for the deal.
He did not, however, say when the next round of discussions with the Left would take place.
The main opposition BJP, which is pressing for a vote on the nuclear deal in parliament, quickly seized the opportunity of an apparent break in the government ranks and dared the Left parties to withdraw support to the government.
“Will they (the Left parties) now bite? If they really believe that the 123 agreement is not in India’s national interest they should vote against it (in parliament),” BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
So far, the Left has only wanted a debate on the nuclear deal in parliament.
Prasad charged: “The hypocrisy and the double-standards policy of the Communists is now clear to people. They always say they do not just bark they can also bite. Will they now bite?”
Criticising the civil nuclear energy cooperation pact with the US, the BJP spokesperson said: “More than two dozen countries will now examine India’s foreign policy. This amounts to mortgaging our foreign policy to the beck and call of the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group of nations that also includes China.”
In the interview to The Telegraph, Manmohan Singh had reminded his Communist allies that they needed to work together and that the UPA-Left alliance could not be a one-sided affair.
“I don’t get angry, I don’t want to use harsh words. They are our colleagues and we have to work with them. But they also have to learn to work with us,” he said.
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the Left have had a love-hate relationship since this government was formed in May 2004, with the Communists protesting its economic and foreign policies. However, neither Manmohan Singh nor UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi have ever used harsh language about the Left.
According to the prime minister, the Left did not understand the 123 agreement and India’s inherent strengths and its improved status in the world clearly.
“I don’t know (why the Left is opposing the deal)… they (Left) seem to have a problem with the United States.
“I want India’s relations to improve with all powers and we have been doing that – with the US, with Russia, with the European Union, with France and particularly with China. We have had a breakthrough with China, a historic agreement where we have defined the principles that will outline the border agreement,” he told the Telegraph.