PRAGOTI

The nuclear deal is against India’s vital interests. The Congressled Government has embraced a strategic alliance with the United States. This dubious deal with President Bush is the centrepiece of a number of agreements on military collaboration and concessions to US capital in various sectors including the financial sector, agriculture and retail trade. The nuclear deal will not provide India energy security. Instead, being anchored in a US law, the Hyde Act, it will hamper India’s independent foreign policy and
restrict our strategic autonomy. The Manmohan Singh Government is guilty of gross violation of the Common Minimum Programme by pursuing a strategic alliance with the USA which is completely contrary to the commitment towards an independent foreign policy made in the CMP. The Left Parties cannot support such a course of action which is harmful for the people and which erodes the country’s sovereignty.

The UPA Government has consistently disregarded democratic opinion on the Indo-US Nuclear Deal:

• The Prime Minister gave assurances in Parliament in August 2006 on safeguarding India’s interests in the nuclear deal. These were nullified by the Hyde Act passed by the United States’ Congress in December 2006.
• Yet, the Prime Minister insisted on going ahead with the negotiations on the 123 Agreement despite strong opposition from the Left and other political circles. A substantial section of the scientists’ community also opposed the deal.
• The Prime Minister has shown contempt for Parliament by disregarding the clear views of the majority as expressed in the debate in the two Houses of Parliament in December 2007.
• The Congress leadership has violated the understanding arrived at with the Left Parties in November 2007, wherein the outcome of the talks with the Secretariat of the IAEA was to be presented to the UPA-Left Committee on the Nuclear Deal.
• The Government refused to show the text of the IAEA Safeguard Agreement to the Left Parties for four months, thus preventing the UPA-Left Committee from arriving at any
  findings.
• The Prime Minister while on his way to the G-8 Summit in Japan announced that the Government will be going to the IAEA Board very soon. But till then he chose to keep the peopleof the country in the dark.

The Congress leadership had promised to ameliorate the condition of the aam admi. After four years of the UPA government, the people are groaning under an unprecedented
price rise. The prices of rice, wheat, edible oil, pulses, vegetables and other essential commodities have all shot up. The Government has refused to heed the Left Parties’ demands to check inflation. The UPA Government’s policies are squarely responsible
for the distressing spectacle of agrarian crisis, farmers’ suicides, mass poverty, price rise and unemployment. This is in stark contrast to the obscene growth of billionaires and enrichment of the already superrich.

The Congress-led UPA Government came into being with a mandate to fight the communal forces on the basis of alternative policies. However, the Congress-led UPA Government has failed to pursue alternative policies and has instead pursued policies rather similar to those of the erstwhile BJP-led Government. The Government has also compromised national sovereignty. The Congress-led Government is now determined to go ahead with a
further rightward shift in both foreign and domestic policies. This situation can only provide fertile ground for the communal forces and undermine the secular cause. Since the Congress-led Government is willfully disregarding the Common Minimum Programme, the Left Parties had no choice but to withdraw support.

The following attachments provide in a nutshell the reasons why the Nuclead Deal is against our national interest.

1. left_parties_on_nuclear_deal.pdf provides the answers to the common questions on the role of the Left on the Nuclear deal issue.

2. Nuclear_Power-Handout.pdf provides the scientific arguments why the Nuclear Deal proposed by Manmohan-Bush combine does not serve India's energy needs.

3. talking_points_nuclear_deal.pdf provides the synopsis of the main arguments against the anti national Nuclear Deal for the common man.

Please click on the links below to download and read the complete texts.