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Sunday, Oct 30, 2005

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Iran: ``India should make amends''

K.V. Prasad

New Delhi should abstain from voting at the IAEA, says Prakash Karat

MAKING A POINT: CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and Abony Roy, members of the Committee for an Independent Foreign Policy, at a convention in New Delhi on Saturday. — Photo: V. Sudershan

NEW DELHI: Stepping up pressure on the Manmohan Singh Government, the Committee for an Independent Foreign Policy led by the Left parties on Saturday demanded that India make amends next month for voting against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting on September 24. "The issue comes up for voting at the IAEA meeting on November 24 and the United States would try and refer the case to the U.N Security Council. India should state that Iran has the right to develop nuclear energy in accordance with international norms. If necessary, India, along with other nations in the Non-Aligned Movement, should abstain from voting... ,'' Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said at a convention here.

Support of 100 MPs

Mr. Karat said the committee included the four Left parties, the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Samajwadi Party. It had the support of 100 MPs and would raise the issue in the winter session of Parliament. "We do not agree that foreign policy can be decided only in the chambers of the Prime Minister's office and External Affairs Minister's office. Parliament should discuss it." Charging the Prime Minister with going back on the stand he articulated to the Left leaders on Iran, Mr. Karat said the clarification now being offered by the Government that the vote in the IAEA was to help Iran amounted to "insulting the people of India and treachery... We are for an independent foreign policy and one that is in our national interest.''

While asserting that Iran as an independent country had the right to pursue a nuclear policy in its interest, he said the nation, as a signatory to the nuclear proliferation treaty, was bound by IAEA norms.

Criticising the United States, the CPI (M) leader said while it allowed Israel to develop nuclear weapons, it denied the same to Iran and Arab countries. "Is this some international law?" Iran had already declared that it was not going to produce weapons but would develop technology for nuclear energy.

CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan said that since the days of the previous National Democratic Alliance Government, pressure had been exerted and had the people not resisted, India would have sent troops to Iraq. Ridiculing the attitude of "bending over backwards" before the U.S., Mr. Bardhan said even low-ranking State Department officials got audience with the Prime Minister. "Shaking hands with the U.S. President is the ultimate for Indian leaders."

Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav decried the U.S. "bullying tactics." Unless India stopped joining hands with the U.S., a crisis might soon engulf it. Countries in West Asia might turn against the country, he said. The Government, which promised to pursue an independent foreign policy, should realise that Washington could dump India if its commercial interest was not served.

Manoj Bhattacharya of the Revolutionary Socialist Party said the Congress did not appear to learn from history. The U.S. was worried over the possibility of India joining hands with China and Russia. Subroto Bose of the All-India Forward Bloc and Danish Ali of the Janata Dal (Secular) spoke.

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