Chandigarh, September 23
Locked in a tug-of-war with the UPA government over the Indo-US nuclear deal, a mellowed CPM today called upon the UPA government to go slow on the deal saying that the CPM would not support any pact that would make India a strategic ally of the USA.
“Wait for six months and let Parliament debate the issue thoroughly,” CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said while addressing a convention on Indo-US nuclear deal here. The next step to operationalise the deal should be delayed as it was against India’s interests and would harm its self reliant nuclear programme, he asserted.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will have to decide whether “he would like to go with his allies and the people of the country, or prefer to toe the US line”. The nuclear deal is not in our interest and we will never accept it," he added.
However, what may sound as music to the ears of the UPA leadership, Karat virtually ruled out the possibility of a mid-term poll at a press conference saying that elections were due only in 2009. However, he did not miss the opportunity to issue a mild threat to the UPA saying that the Congress had only 145 MPs and was dependent on Left's critical support.
Accusing the UPA of going back on the Common Minimum Programme chalked out with the allies and “adopting a US agenda” the CPM leader claimed that US president George Bush was himself not popular and only 30 per cent of the people supported him.
The Indian government should not rush the deal and see what the next dispensation in the USA felt about it, he said.
Doubting US intentions, Karat said there was no guarantee that the USA would not invoke the provisions of the Hyde Act, which were against India's interests during the 40-year nuclear deal.
In fact, the USA did not consider the deal as the “stand-alone”. It was part of the American design to try in India a wide ranging
strategic alliance which would adversely affect the pursuit of an independent foreign policy and our strategic
autonomy, he added.
Meanwhile, Karat urged the UPA government to order full scale inquiry into the import of wheat that had led to a loss of Rs 541 crore to the state
exchequer.
The government has imported wheat at the rate of Rs 1,600 per
quintal while Indian farmers were being given an MSP of Rs 850 per quintal only, he said at the press conference here.
The CPM was not
satisfied with the reply of the Agriculture Minister in this regard and only a full scale inquiry could bring out the truth, he said adding that it was
“great injustice” to the farmers and the PDS system.
The CPM leader also expressed serious concern at the top central government functionaries such as the finance
secretary and the deputy chairman of the planning commission attending the Indo-US CEO joint forum meeting in
New York.
