Government lack transparency in nuclear deal: Left

{image-prakash karat_09072008.jpg news.oneindia.in}New Delhi, Jul 9: After submitting a letter to President Pratibha Patil on withdrawal of support to the government, the Left parties accused the Government of lack of transparency in the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) Chief Prakash Karat said the Congress has violated the agreement, which was made on November 16, 2007 that after a discussion with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the party would present a paper to the UPA-Left joint committee, which would then be examined. Only then the next step was to be taken.

Prakash Karat said that Pranab Mukherjee, who headed the UPA- Left committee, later took the stand that he could not do so as the papers were classified. Karat asked how could the Congress now say that IAEA wants these documents to be termed as classified and who had termed them classified. Was it the UPA government or the IAEA?

"Are we to believe that the IAEA has one standard for the US and another for us. No text can be classified unless the government itself wants it to be termed so," he asserted.

Karat said that the text of the nuclear agreement would bind the nation in perpetuity over safeguards.

He demanded the text to be made public and pointed out that the country's nuclear scientists, experts and the people have a right to know what it contains.

ANI