Nuke Deal Faces Oppositions From CPI (M) And Others

The Communist Party of India CPI(M) has firmly rejected the US legislation on the nuclear deal as being "grossly violative" of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assurances to Parliament and has made it clear that negotiations between New Delhi and Washington on the deal must be stopped. Demanding the rejection of the US legislation on the civil nuclear cooperation with India because it ran contrary to assurances given by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament on August 17, the CPM today asked the government to pull out of negotiations for a bilateral agreement on the nuclear deal.

The nuclear deal has now run into serious trouble at home, with the main opposition party BJP and the left having rejected the US law with a demand for a full-fledged debate in Parliament.

"The argument that the country should wait for the final agreement is specious; obviously the US administration is bound by the provisions of its act while negotiating the agreement. This cannot be accepted by India as it negates the most significant, if not all, assurances made by the prime minister to the Indian parliament. Thus, further negotiations on this score must not proceed," CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said Monday.

With barely a week left for the winter session to end, the CPM wants a discussion in Parliament straight away to lay down a “minimum common denominator” beyond which India will not go on the deal.

Listing nine points on which the Left had earlier raised objections on the Indo-US nuclear deal • covering full civilian nuclear cooperation, reciprocity, annual certification, fuel assurances and autonomy of decision making on future scientific R&D • and on which the PM had given specific assurances, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said on each of these, the US legislation still failed to meet India’s concerns.