New Delhi
14 August 2007
An unrelenting CPI(M) on Tuesday reiterated that the UPA
Government should not proceed with operationalising the 123 Agreement. The terse
reminder came within hours of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's breakfast meeting with
CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat.
The CPI(M) Politburo said: "The Prime Minister's statement in Parliament does not shed
any new light on the India-US nuclear agreement that calls for a reassessment on our
part. He has reiterated his position on the agreement and has not addressed the issues
that we have raised."
In a point-by-point rebuttal of the Prime Minister Singh's statement on the proposed
India-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement, the Politburo listed certain issues of
divergence between the Left and the UPA and also sought to explain the reasons for the
CPI(M)'s opposition to the nuclear deal.
"One of the more important issues raised by the Left right from the beginning," the party
said, "is the link that the agreement has had on India's foreign policy. Here, the issue is
not what the Prime Minister is saying but what his government is doing."
It referred to joint naval exercises and Iran to state: "It is difficult to agree with the Prime
Minister that this agreement has no impact on our independent foreign policy, especially
when the US officials are busy selling the agreement to the US Congress on the strategic
value of India aligning with the US as a consequence of the agreement."
The party questioned the Prime Minister for saying that the US cooperation with India will
not be subject to an annual certification process. It said: "A simple reading of
Constitutional practice of the US would clarify that this annual certification is an
obligation of the US President, which he is bound to fulfil. That it does not find a place in
the 123 Agreement is not relevant."
It explained: "The issue that we have raised is if a "good conduct certificate" is not
forthcoming or if the US Congress does not accept the good conduct certificate given (on
issues ranging from Iran to anything that may come up in the future) what would be the
implications for the 123 Agreement. In our understanding, the US could terminate the
agreement with all its consequences for our civilian nuclear energy programme."
The CPI(M) disagreed with the Prime Minister that life term security for nuclear fuel has
been achieved in the 123 Agreement. It said that full access to technology for the fuel
cycle will not be available to India either. "The Prime Minister has essentially confirmed
this; the only concession finally secured is forward-looking language," the Politburo
said. It went on to point out that the right to reprocess is only a notional right at present
and subject to conditions that might emerge in the future.
The CPI(M) also saw no basis for the Prime Minister's "continued optimism" of the NSG
changing its guidelines without conditions and dismantling the restrictions on the
transfer of dual use technologies to India. "This is the same belief he had expressed in
Parliament when he had stated that the US would give full access to civilian nuclear
technology, an expectation, which he has now conceded has been belied," it added.
The leader of the CPI(M) in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Sitaram Yechury, said that all
outstanding issues, including a reappraisal of the CPI(M)'s ties with the UPA, would be
discussed threadbare in the Politburo on August 17 and 18. The meeting is also likely to
decide whether to persist with the UPA-Left coordination committee.
No comments:
Post a Comment