By IANS
New Delhi : The Indian government Tuesday vigorously defended the contentious India-US nuclear deal against attacks by its Left allies, who said they will not allow the deal to be completed, and the opposition parties reiterating their rejection of the pact.
Intervening in the debate on the nuclear deal in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rejected the opposition’s charges that the US was dictating India’s foreign policy, saying it was “false” that New Delhi backed out the deal for additional Russian reactors or meetings of the Shanghai Corporation Organisation (SCO) under pressure from Washington.
With the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which leads the four-party Left Front, making it clear in again that it will not allow the deal to be completed as it will make India a “subordinate ally” of the US, the Indian government’s bid to make the nuclear deal operational appeared doomed to failure.
At the end of nearly eight-hour long debate that went on till 11.30 p.m., it appeared that a majority of the MPs were opposed to the nuclear deal either because they suspected it will affect India’s strategic programme or they had misgivings about the handle it will allegedly give to Washington in manipulating New Delhi’s foreign policy.
The debate saw acrimonious exchanges between Manmohan Singh and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha.
The government, however, passionately defended the pact as the “best possible deal” for India, giving the country more than what the US has given to any other nation, including China.
Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal dismissed the Left’s objections to the deal as part of its “ideological” opposition to the US.
He also targeted Sinha and Arun Shourie, two BJP campaigners who said the nuclear deal will seriously impact on the country’s strategic programme and its independent foreign policy. “They oppose it because they want to be a part of it,” said Sibal.
He recalled that former prime minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee of BJP had in 1998 unilaterally announced that India will not conduct any more tests. “Then what is the opposition now?” he wondered.
Sibal referred to Sinha’s assertion that if the BJP came to power it would renegotiate the deal and asked, “What is it you want to renegotiate? Do you want the US to say that India can have as many tests as they want? Then say so.”
He also dismissed the contention of the BJP and the Left suggestion that the deal could result in India becoming subservient to the US foreign policy.
“India is too big and too proud to be subjugated by the US foreign policy,” he said.
He told the Left members, “We are against your ideology but we appreciate your stand,” adding the BJP had different ideologies when it is in power and when it is not.
The Left was, however, unstinting in its rejection to the deal.
“We have extended support to the UPA government on the basis of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP). We cannot allow the government to complete this deal initiated by the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government,” CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.
“Our appeal to you (Prime Minister Manmohan Singh) is, please do not proceed on this at all. Do not make India a subordinate ally of the US,” Yechury said.
The Left Front props up the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government from outside. If the government decides to go ahead with the deal despite the Left’s opposition, it has to face the grim prospect of losing the crucial support of its allies leading to early elections next year.
The Left parties, after intensive discussions with the UPA, relented last month on allowing the government to proceed with negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
But the reiteration of their opposition to the deal shows that the decision to allow the government to go ahead with the IAEA negotiations was primarily meant as a face-saver for the Manmohan Singh government.
Refuting charges levelled against the Communists, the CPI-M leader said, “It is wrong to say we are anti-American. Our opposition is not to the American people. In fact, we are pro-American people,” said Yechury adding, “Sixty-one percent of the US people are not for (George W.) Bush. We are anti-US imperialism.
“Even if China approves this deal, we will continue to oppose it.”
Yechury mentioned how India had wriggled out of a gas pipeline project also involving Iran and Pakistan and wondered whether it was done under pressure from the US.
The Left leader said those trying to export goods to Iran were being denied credit. “We are already succumbing to the US pressure.”
The chief opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also launched an offensive, targeting the government for doing a deal which, it said, will impact adversely on India’s strategic programme and independence of the country’s foreign policy.
The BJP reiterated again that it will renegotiate the deal if it comes to power – a point made by its senior leader L.K. Advani in the debate on nuclear deal in the Lok Sabha last week.
“There is a lot of discussion outside that we have changed our position on the deal. I assert what our leader Sushma Swaraj said in August 2005 that this deal was a grave mistake and we still think the same,” said Sinha, also a former foreign minister.
“I declare that if we come to power, which we will, we will re-negotiate the deal. We oppose the deal for three reasons. First, it will affect nuclear deterrence, second, foreign policy and, third, nuclear policy,” he said.
Sinha taunted Manmohan Singh for not signing an inter-governmental agreement on building four additional nuclear reactors at Kudankulam with Russia allegedly under US pressure.
Trying to pin down the government for its alleged pro-US tilt in its foreign policy, Sinha also took pot shots at the prime minister for not going to attend the annual summits of the six-nation SCO, which is dominated by Russia and China. India is invited to the annual SCO summit as an observer.
“Our prime minister got no time for Shanghai, because the US does not like the SCO,” Sinha alleged.
This taunt outraged the prime minister and forced him to intervene in the debate. “The honourable member is levelling false charges. All I wanted was that when the Indian prime minister goes he should not sit on the sidelines in the coffee shop but share the high table,” he said.
Undeterred, Sinha went to charge that the Manmohan Singh government deferred the signing of an agreement on four additional nuclear reactors with Russia during his recent visit to Moscow.
This annoyed Manmohan Singh even more. “I am willing to clarify right now. The draft (of the agreement) of four reactors was ready. But that agreement could have been operationalised only if India had secured the approval of the IAEA and satisfied the NSG. Since these two conditions are still in the process, Russia fully understands this and all the rest is false propaganda here and outside,” an angry prime minister said.
“I allege with fully seriousness that you have come under US pressure not to sign that agreement,” Sinha thundered back.
“Sinha is levelling false charges. Perhaps he is reminded of his own time when as the finance minister he was not allowed to meet the finance minister of Japan,” the usually mild-mannered prime minister commented caustically.
“Now he has come to a very personal level,” Sinha said bitterly.
When the BJP leader protested, he was curtly was told by Deputy Chairman K. Rahman Khan: “You have to be prepared to take it too”.
The mutual recrimination between the BJP leader and the prime minister, provoked by the latter’s remarks, triggered a commotion in the house with members from both sides shouting against each other. It took Khan quite some time and effort to restore order in the house.
Sinha also alleged that the deal which aims at the resumption of global civilian nuclear commerce after a gap of three decades, is an “an attempt to get us into the NPT regime”.
Sinha accused the UPA government of “misleading” the nation on all key issues including the right to reprocess fuel, energy security and ending the country’s nuclear apartheid.
“All the scientists whom I have spoken to have told me that the nuclear isolation has proved to be a boon for India,” he said advising the government to stop this “cry over ending the apartheid”.
The BJP, which had supported the “strategic friendship with the US” even while opposing the deal in the Lok Sabha Nov 28, adopted a more strident anti-US stand in the upper house.
The allies of the government, the RJD, the DMK and NCP, along with some independent members like Ram Jethmalani and K. Kasturirangan, rose to the defence of the deal, saying it was in the larger national interest.
The Samajwadi Party, the TDP and AIADMK predictably countered the government’s arguments and opposed the deal. Amar Singh of the Samajwadi Party denied there was any dilution in his party’s opposition to the deal