‘Left to withdraw support if deal operationalised’

Hours ahead of the meeting with UPA on Indo-US N-deal, Left parties reasserted their stand on the operationalisation of the deal.

Hours ahead of their meeting with the UPA on the Indo-US nuclear deal, Left parties on Friday again made it clear that they would withdraw support if the government proceeded with operationalising the agreement.

“The question is whether India goes ahead with (operationalising) the agreement. Then we will have to see. If they proceed, we have already made it clear that our support will no longer be there,” CPI (M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury told reporters.

His remarks came amid a series of strong statements on the issue made by the Left leadership in the past few days.

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Regarding Friday’s meeting of the 15-member Left-UPA Committee, Yechury said the government has responded to their concerns. “We have studied their note and on that basis, we will place our views at the meeting,” he said.

The CPI (M) leader said he hoped that these discussions between the Congress-led coalition and its outside supporters would continue.

Warning that the Left support could not be taken for granted by the UPA, CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan had said there were indications that government would go ahead with operationalising the deal. No reconciliation could be possible unless it puts the deal on hold, he said on Thursday.

Yechury, in an editorial in the CPI (M) organ “People’s Democracy”, also said “surely, no one can expect it to support this UPA government, which in violation of the CMP, is pursuing to continue the direction of India’s foreign policy that was begun in the first place by the BJP-led NDA government.”

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The Forward Bloc and the RSP have also been vociferous on their opposition to the nuclear deal.

The Left-UPA Committee, headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, is slated to continue parleys on the agenda items of the previous meeting on September 19.

The latest Left note outlines their apprehensions regarding the implications of the Hyde Act on foreign and security policies. On the foreign policy front, it is a compilation of the Left’s critical views on issues like India’s stand on Iraq, Iran and the Palestine questions.

Regarding security issues, the Left note is understood to contain the questions concerning joint military exercises with the US forces, the logistics agreement with the US and their views on how the government has responded on them.

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The notes exchanged between the UPA and Left have so far covered issues like the impact of Hyde Act on the 123 agreement, fuel supply assurances, IAEA safeguards, full nuclear cooperation and annual certification by US President.

Notwithstanding Left’s scathing criticism, UPA has asserted in its note that the Left parties should be “confident” about government’s ability to secure India’s national interests.

On Left concerns over how the Hyde Act would affect implementation of 123 agreement by Washington, UPA has said once the accord was approved by US Congress, only its provisions and not the Hyde Act, would govern the rights and obligations of the contracting parties.

The UPA has also claimed it had “ensured” that it would not be placed in a situation similar to the one experienced by the Tarapur nuclear power plant when the US had stopped fuel supplies.