By IANS
New Delhi : Left leaders Saturday held a crucial meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi while adamantly refusing to moderate their opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Left sources made it clear that Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat had decreed that the leftwing bloc led by his party would not accept the nuclear deal in the present form.
“We are firm,” Karat told his colleagues in the CPI-M politburo, which ended a two-day meeting here.
His comments – explained in great detail in a signed editorial in “People’s Democracy”, the party mouthpiece – came just before he and his colleague Sitaram Yechury called on Manmohan Singh and Gandhi.
Also attending the meeting was External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who Congress sources believe is close to the Left.
Left sources said the leaders would reiterate their demand to the government that the 123 agreement on the nuclear deal cannot be made operational because it would make India a junior member of the US strategic umbrella.
“The Left will not withdraw an inch from its stance on the deal. We do not want the government to go ahead with the 123 agreement,” a senior Left leader told IANS.
“Now it is up to the prime minister and the government to decide whether they are ready to re-negotiate the deal or to address our concerns when the agreement is taken to the NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group),” he added.
There is also a possibility of the Left withdrawing its support to the UPA government. But Left leaders indicated that they might continue “issue by issue” support to the government.
Although angry over Manmohan’s blunt-speaking to the Left to withdraw support if they cannot back the nuclear deal, Karat has clarified that the Left would not pull down the government.
From the government’s side, both Mukherjee and Gandhi have been trying to bridge the gap between the UPA and Left. The gulf has only widened following Manmohan Singh’s accept-it-or-leave-it remarks directed at the Left.
In a desperate bid to soften up the Left, Manmohan Singh and Mukherjee had a dinner meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, also a politburo member, Friday evening.
Meanwhile, Karat said in a “People’s Democracy” editorial made public Saturday that the Indian government should clarify “all the doubts” regarding the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement and evaluate the Hyde Act.
He said the agreement “will bind India to the US in a manner that will seriously impair an independent foreign policy and our strategic autonomy”.
“The best course would be for the government not to proceed further with the operationalising of the agreement,” he said, reminding the government that there was “widespread opposition” to the agreement.
However, he added: “Till all the doubts are clarified and the implications of the Hyde Act evaluated, the government should not take the next steps with regard to negotiating the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards, which are to be in perpetuity, and proceed to get the guidelines from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).”
Pointing out that the deal was “only one part of the wide-ranging alliance that the UPA government has forged with the US, Karat said:
“This agreement covers political, economic, military and nuclear cooperation. This alliance entails not just nuclear cooperation but talks of the two countries promoting global democracy, revamping the Indian economy to facilitate large scale investment by the US and a strategic military collaboration.”
Karat said joint military exercises with the US, the Defence Framework Agreement signed with the US in July 2005 and India’s decision to vote along with the US against Iran’s nuclear programme in the IAEA meeting were part of a larger Indo-US strategic alliance that the Left would not support.
“The UPA government has been deepening collaboration with Israel in the military and security spheres which violates our long-held policy of support to the Palestinian cause and friendship with the Arab countries,” Karat said.
“Certain Indian companies have been warned not to export to Iran due to American pressure.
“The Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline will not proceed if this nuclear agreement is put in place despite protestations to the contrary by the government,” he said.
Karat said many of the provisions under the Hyde Act that impinge on nuclear cooperation with India were not mentioned in the bilateral text.
“The Hyde Act expects India to have a foreign policy ‘congruent’ to the US,” he said.