Indo-US nuclear deal a trap for India, says CPM

CPI(M) writes to scientific community, BJP and the Congress on the “dangerous” nuclear deal.

NEW DELHI: Even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reassured Left leaders on Saturday that he would stick to what he told Parliament last year on the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement, the CPI(M) on Sunday issued a detailed note giving details of the creeping contradictions between what the PM said and the amendments brought in by the US Committees on the deal.    

The note has been sent to the scientific community and all major political parties including the BJP and the Congress to mobilise opinion across the political spectrum against the nuclear deal which the CPI(M) said was like a trap for India.

Warning the UPA government of a major confrontation on the issue, the CPI(M) said it has taken up the matter with the scientific community and all major political parties including the BJP and the Congress.

Suspecting that Washington's move to raise "new issues would compromise the indigenous nuclear development programme", CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat on Sunday said his party has forwarded "a detailed note on the cooperation agreement between India and the US to all major political parties and the scientific community" to tell them how "dangerous" the pact is.

Placing its nine objections to the changes that US is forcing at various stages of discussion on the Indo-US nuke deal, Karat said "it is no longer a Left issue, the accord would restrict India's nuclear technology development in perpetuity and make its foreign policy a permanent hostage to the US."

Confirming that efforts are on to get a “Sense of Parliament” to express itself, against the agreement, Karat said like President George Bush is bound by US Congress on how to proceed on the Indo-US deal, the UPA government "should be bound by Parliament on the matter."

The CPI(M) apprehends that "inspection will be more intrusive (which was not there in the original agreement). The Prime Minister had said 'we can import, we can process and we can enrich uranimum.'  If for some reasons the country needs to mine more uranium, you have to explain to the Americans."  

The Left leaders pointed out that the Prime Minister had said on July 29, 2005 that "India will not compromise its strategic interests."

The Sense the House resolution states: "... .and is working with the US in key foreign policy initiatives related to non-proliferation. ...  such cooperation will induce the country to give greater political and material support to the achievement of US global and regional non-proliferation objectives, especially with respect to dissuading, isolating and, if necessary, sanctioning and containing states that sponsor terrorism and terrorist groups; that are seeking to acquire a nuclear weapons capability or other weapons of mass destruction capability and the means to deliver such weapons." "The US secure India's full and active participation in US efforts to dissuade, isolate and if necessary, sanction and contain Iran for its efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, including a nuclear weapons capability (including the capability to enrich or process nuclear materials), and the means to deliver weapons of mass destruction."