By IANS
New Delhi : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Friday stated there was “no crisis” for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government but insisted that the Left only wanted the government to “pause” the contentious Indo-US civil nuclear deal and not to press on the “eject or stop buttons”.
The CPI-M, which has reiterated that the Indo-US nuclear deal would do no good for the nation, also took strong exception to a “scurrilous campaign” that it was opposing the deal at “China’s behest”.
In what is seen as a softening of its stance towards the government, CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechurty told reporters in parliament building: “I don’t see a crisis. Where was it, and where has it gone?
“We wanted the government to press the pause button, not even the eject or stop buttons,” he said, using computer metaphors.
Ironically, Yechury’s remarks come a day after CPI-M’s Central Committee resolution referred to the current political stand-off as a “crisis” in its resolution adopted at its two-day meeting.
Yechury said the CPI-M-led Left parties were waiting to get a response from the Congress party. The Central Committee has also clarified that it was not keen to push the country into elections, but the government had to freeze the “operationalisation” of the deal.
The CPI-M also clarified that they did not want the nuclear debate to overshadow other “people-related issues”.
“We want a structured debate in parliament over the issue,” said Yechury Friday.
But he quickly added that the Left wanted other “important issues” like price rise, legislation for workers in unorganised sector and implementation of the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission report on the 1993 Mumbai riots and the Sachar Committee report on socio-economic status of Indian Muslims to be debated in parliament.
“We don’t want the nuclear issue to hijack other important issues,” Yechury said.
Meanwhile, in an editorial in the CPI-M party mouthpiece ‘People’s Democracy’, the party argued that power generation – cited as an advantage by supporters of the nuclear deal – from the deal would be only seven percent of India’s projected capacity generation by 2015. The current nuclear power generation is 3,310 MW, that is just 2.5 percent of the total generation capacity.
According to the CPI-M, nuclear power generation will be very expensive too, compared to coal and hydroelectric projects. It argued that India has at least 50,000 MW untapped hydroelectricity potential and neighbouring Nepal has 83,000 MW, which New Delhi could tap through international agreements.
It said such moves would “augment our energy capacities at half the cost of nuclear energy, but will also tame the rivers which regularly consume the lives of hundreds of people through torrential floods”.
Pointing out that arguments that the Indo-US nuclear deal would augment energy resources and provide electricity to farmers and poor as “hollow”, the editorial said: “It appears that as a consequences of this deal, huge commercial orders running into thousands of crores of rupees for the purchase of nuclear reactors would be placed on US and other advanced countries’ corporations.”
Criticising the allegations that the CPI-M’s objections were at the behest of China, the article questioned the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s opposition to the nuclear deal.
“The CPI(M)’s policy directions are determined by its own perceptions of what is in the interests of India and its people. Those who are willing to eagerly surrender India’s sovereignty to US imperialism should be the last ones to dole out unsolicited advice and certificates of patriotism,” it said.