UPA should not take rigid stand on Indo-US N-deal: Biman Basu

Kolkata, Aug 19 (UNI) Stating that UPA government should not take a rigid stand over the Indo-US nuclear deal, CPI(M) State Committee Secretary Biman Basu today said the ball was now in the court of the Cognress before going ahead with the agreement.

''The ball is now in the court of the Congress party. The Centre should think five times before treading a disastrous path and hold talk with the allied parties'' he told reporters.

Mr Basu, who is also a CPI(M) Polit Buro member, said his party had demanded nothing unacceptable and the stand it had taken over the nuclear pact was for the sake of the country's sovereignty.

''Nothing can be done at the expense of the country's sovereignty.

Whatever we have said is for the protection of the country's freedom to carry on its independent nuclear activities''.

The CPI(M) Polit Buro that sat in Delhi on August 17 and 18 gave a fait accompli to the UPA government and made it clear that the deal must be freezed and the Centre must not proceed further with the agreement with regard to negotiating the safeguard agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Stating that there was marked difference between the implications of what Prime Minister Monmohan Singh had clarifed on the agreement in Parliament in 2005 and what it was now, Mr Basu said, It is the Hyde Act which allowed the US to interfere in Indian nuclear activities and cancel the treaty.'' UNI KDG PC SR RK2024