By IANS,
New Delhi : Communist leader Prakash Karat Friday accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government of being “obsessed with its vision of becoming a strategic partner of the US” and ignoring serious issues like inflation.
“The country is watching the spectacle of a leadership which is obsessed with its vision of becoming a strategic partner of the US and fulfilling its commitment to an American president who is reviled around the world and has the least credibility within his own country,” the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary said in an article published in the latest issue of his party mouthpiece People’s Democracy.
Karat, who has been vehemently opposing the India-US civil nuclear agreement, added: “If the priorities of our country and the people are kept in mind, the government should be engaged on a war footing to curb inflation and price rise and take urgent measures to provide relief to the people. But the last fortnight has exposed what the priorities of the government are.”
Karat, who has warned the government against going ahead with the India-specific safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), alleged that the schedule set out by the US was “impelling the prime minister to go ahead regardless of the consequences”.
The CPI-M-led Left parties, which prop the Congress-led coalition government, oppose the government’s move to finalise the IAEA pact, a crucial step to take the nuclear agreement ahead. The strain in the ties between the Left and the Congress has put a question mark on the future of the government.
Karat, who has conveyed to the government that the Left would withdraw its legislative support if the government went ahead with the deal, blamed Manmohan Singh’s “renewed bid to go to the IAEA for seeking the approval of the Board of Governors on the text of the safeguards agreement” for the current crisis.