Left sends note to govt outlining apprehensions on nuke deal

The Left parties have asked the government whether it can assure that India's foreign and security policies would not be compromised with the global American interests due to the Indo-US Defence Framework and the nuclear agreements.
The outside supporters have outlined their apprehensions in a note to the UPA-Left Committee headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, which is slated to meet for the fourth time on Tuesday to deliberate on the impact of the Hyde Act on India's foreign and security policies.

The Left parties have referred to the provisions of the US domestic law that the annual certification of the 123 agreement by the American President would follow only if India's foreign policy was "congruent" to American interests.

They maintained that strategic ties with the US would be contrary to the foreign policy direction laid down by the Common Minimum Programme (CMP).

The stand taken by the UPA government on Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Palestinian issue, the Look-East policy, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and Non-Aligned Movement have been questioned in the note submitted to the 15-member panel recently, particularly in the context of the CMP and the assurances given by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament.

The government is expected to reply to the note at the forthcoming meeting, as the Left continued consultations among themselves with top leaders Prakash Karat and A B Bardhan holding a couple of rounds of meetings.

In the note, the Left asked whether there was any link between the Indo-US joint statement of July 2005 and India's vote against Iran at the IAEA in September 2005. PTI