By IANS
New Delhi : The government’s hopes of pushing forward the India-US nuclear deal suffered a setback Tuesday with its Left allies asking the government not to proceed with the deal which will make New Delhi a “subordinate ally” of Washington and the chief opposition BJP slamming it as a “grave mistake.”
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which leads the four-party Left Front that props up the ruling coalition from outside, poured cold water on whatever hopes the government had of operationalising the nuclear deal, reiterating that it would make India a “subordinate ally” of the US.
The Left parties, which after intensive discussions with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), relented on allowing the government to proceed with negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last month, but made it clear Tuesday that they will not allow the government to complete this deal.
The CPI-M’s reiteration of its opposition virtually seals the fate of the deal and hints that its concession to allow the government to go ahead with the IAEA negotiations was meant as a face-saver for the Manmohan Singh government.
“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 during a marathon discussion on the nuclear deal in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament.
“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.
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.
“We take our position on the basis of what we perceive as India’s national interest. And this is based not on extra-territorial loyalty. Even if China approves this deal, we will continue to oppose it.”
Yechury quoted a senior US official in the UN who according to him had said, “If you play by the rules like India you will be rewarded. Otherwise you will face sanctions,” referring to Iran as the country which had defied the US and was facing sanctions.
He 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 US pressure.”
As the Left allies of the government asserted their implacable opposition to the deal, the chief opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), launched an offensive, targeting the government for doing a deal which will impact adversely on India’s strategic programme and independence of the country’s foreign policy.
“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,” senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, also a former foreign minister, said.
“We oppose the deal for three reasons. First, it will affect nuclear deterrence, second, foreign policy and, third, nuclear policy,” he said.
Sinha moved beyond arguments pertaining to the nuclear deal and taunted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for not signing an inter-governmental agreement on building four additional nuclear reactors at Kudankulam with Russia 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 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (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 prime minister commented acerbically.
“Now he has come to a very personal level,” Sinha said bitterly.
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 Deputy Chairman K. Rahman 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”.
He said, “Our scientists have progressed this far since 1974 in spite of the nuclear isolation and felt that this isolation has proved to be boon rather than a bane.”
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 government vehemently defended the deal saying that it will benefit India immensely to meet its long-term energy requirements.
Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi stressed that the deal will bring to an end “India being treated as an international pariah”. “Judge not by what we can get, judge by what we have got,” he added.
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 demolished the government’s arguments and opposed the deal. Amar Singh of the Samajwadi Party denied there was any dilution in the party’s opposition to the deal.