CPI leader trains gun on Manmohan Singh over nuke deal

Mumbai, Sep 7 (UNI) The Communist Party of India (CPI) today said the Left parties have never talked about withdrawing support to the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government at the Centre and instead it was the Prime Minister who had thrown the gauntlet to them.

Party's Central Executive Committee member P G Panasare said, ''It is the responsibility of the PM to run this coalition and not ours. Our support to the Government is from outside and is based on the Common Minimum Programme.'' Talking to mediapersons here, the senior communist said the Left parties had every right to raise questions on any issue, which ''contravenes the coalition dharma''.

''We have every right to raise questions, if there are any deviations from the Common Minimum Programme (CMP), and this is what precisely we are doing,'' Mr Panasare said.

The CPI has launched a nation-wide campaign from September 4-15, to explain to the masses why it was opposing the Indo-US nuke deal.

''It is necessary that the people are informed about the stand taken by the CPI and the Left Front. It is also necessary that a serious, frank and informed debate is conducted about the pros and cons of the nuke deal,'' the senior CPI leader said.

''The Government did not discuss with us before signing on the dotted lines. So the deal is in stark contrast to the letter and spirit of the CMP, which is the very fulcrum of this Government.

And this is one of the reasons why we are opposed to the deal,'' the Leftist explained.

Mr Pansare further said that if the deal were to get through, it will have wide-ranging ramification on the country's foreign policy, which so far has been traditionally of non-alignment.

''We have never been a part of any military alliance, and have all along followed the policy of non-alignment. However, getting into the nuke pact, will place us in the US military camp. A military pact has already been signed with the US, and we are opposed to this paradigm shift in our foreign policy,'' he elaborated.

The CPI leader expressed his apprehension that the nuke deal will leave country's nuclear programme at the mercy of the US.

UNI