CPI(M) to agitate against nuclear deal, not to press for voting

Hyderabad, Aug 11 (UNI) A day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asserted that the nuclear deal with the United States would not be renegotiated, CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury today said his party would agitate against the pact from September 4 to 9, coinciding with the joint naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal by the US, Japan, Singapore and India.

Addressing a press conference here, he, however, made it clear that the party would not press for voting during the debate in the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament.

But the party would articulate its ''serious reservations'' about the provisions of the agreement, which were not in the ''national interest'', and put pressure on the UPA Government at the Centre to address the CPI(M)'s concerns before signing India-specific protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the agreement with the Nuclear Suppliers Group, Mr Yechury said.

It was for the presiding officers of both the Houses, in consultation with the leaders of both the Houses, to decide in which form a discussion on the issue should be allowed in Parliament, he said in reply to a question.

Coinciding with the military exercise, two 'jathas', one from Kolkata and another from Chennai, would start on September 4 and converge in Visakhapatnam on September 9, Mr Yechury said.

On the Prime Minister's reported threat to resign on the issue, he made it clear that the issue was not connected with any personality.

Mr Yechury contended that the Prime Minister had not fulfilled his assurance to Parliament. Under the agreement, access to dual use technology, including nuclear fuel enrichment, was denied to India and the clause on termination of the 123 agreement was heavily loaded in favour of the US, he alleged.

''India cannot be a strategic ally of the US in South Asia as also globally,'' he asserted, claiming that the agreement made India a part of the US' defence structures. India would be bound to provide logistics support to the US armed forces, which it had denied during the US invasion of Iraq. Under the agreement, India could not take any foreign policy position incongruent with the US interest,'' he noted.

The 123 agreement would be a big boost to the US armament industry as India would be forced to buy armaments worth 80 billion US dollars from the US, he added.

UNI