New Delhi, June 16
Bolstered by its success in the selection of UPA presidential nominee, the CPM today warned the UPA government to trudge carefully on the nuclear deal with the USA or face serious consequences.
CPM polit bureau member Sitaram Yechury warned that the “UPA government is on test” on the civilian nuclear cooperation with the USA. “It is to be hoped that they do not fail the test. Otherwise the consequences can be serious.”
The Left parties had earlier threatened to withdraw support to the Manmohan Singh government on the nuclear issue.
The party’s polit bureau member observed that “but, for most of the country the thought of tying India down hand and foot to the United States will be unacceptable.”
“Those who shamelessly advocate India becoming a strategic ally of the USA, see no harm in conceding on the vital issues for clinching the nuclear deal,” he wrote in the editorial of People’s Democracy.
He said the CPM had cautioned the government not to proceed with the 123 bilateral negotiations without the USA changing some of the provisions of the Hyde Act.
Prime Minister and the Congress leadership have invested a lot of importance to the nuclear cooperation agreement and they have relentlessly pursued the deal disregarding the long-term interests of the country, the Left leader alleged.
The Hyde Act passed by the US Congress contain provisions which are not only going back on “civilian nuclear cooperation” but also dictates and sets out conditions for India’s foreign policy.
Notwithstanding the repeated assertions that such conditions are “non-binding” and the “presidential signing statement” which purports to term the objectionable sections of the Act as “advisory”, the hard fact remains that a bilateral agreement signed under the auspices of this legislation will place India at the mercy of the president of the USA and the US Congress in the future, “imperilling our national sovereignty and strategic autonomy”, he wrote.
If New Delhi accepts the Hyde Act provisions, he warned, “we will see a repetition of how India was coerced into voting against Iran twice in the IAEA. We can forget about pursuing an independent foreign policy.”
Yechury wrote that the contentious issue on the nuclear deal that still remain between the New Delhi and Washington are “major and they are not resolvable because they stem from the legislation adopted by the US Congress, the Hyde Act.”
“It is clear that the USA is not conceding India’s right to reprocess the imported spent fuel. This reprocessing of spent fuel is essential for the country’s indigenous three-stage nuclear programme” he wrote.
He observed that this despite the fact that India will place its civilian nuclear reactors under permanent international safeguards. Further, the USA wants the return of all nuclear equipment and fuel supplied in case India tests again, a condition to make the voluntary moratorium legally binding.
