Karat says fight against nuclear deal not over

New Delhi, Sept 7 : The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Sunday said its fight against the Indo-US nuclear deal was not over and it would work now to see a new government in power which would terminate the 123 Agreement.

The CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat told media persons here today, "Our political battle is here and not in Vienna or Washington. Earlier we withdrew support on this issue and we are now fighting against this ruling coalition. The struggle to rescind or reverse this deal is agreement is not over."

"After the next elections, our goal will be to see that the new government take step to terminate the 123 Agreement. We will work for this," added Karat.

"The CPM had told the Congress to take the people's mandate before going ahead with operationalising the deal, for which the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government has converted its voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing into a multi-lateral commitment," said Karat, and added, "India would not get any better terms from any other country supplying nuclear fuel or reactors as all of them would now align with the 123 Agreement."

The 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) approval ends 34 years of isolation enforced upon India following the 1974 Pokhran nuclear tests.

India was given approval by the NSG on Saturday in spite of not having signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which is unprecedented and a landmark step in the implementation of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal that will now go to the US Congress for approval.

ANI