NEW DELHI : The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Monday reiterated its position that the sense of Parliament should be reflected when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh responded to the discussion on the India-U.S. nuclear agreement. The Rajya Sabha is scheduled to debate the issue on Thursday.

Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said the Left parties had stated that there could be five options — a resolution, a declaration, an assertion, a statement by the presiding officers or an agreed statement by Dr. Singh."We have said whatever be the form, some type of expression [of the House] will be good for the country," he told a press conference here.

Objecting to a reported move by the Government asking two private Indian companies not to export to Iran, he said it was a "classic case of India already bending backwards [to the United States]. This is a major indicator of the state of things to come even before the nuclear deal was finalised."

Mr. Yechury said in the Rajya Sabha and outside that this proved the Left parties' apprehension that the nuclear deal was more to do with a foreign policy decision rather than the civilian nuclear agreement. "All this indicates pressures before the deal and it is pressures like this [that] have to be resisted."

The CPI (M) said the Left parties hoped that the Prime Minister would deal with all the points and assure Parliament that the Government would not go beyond what he has assured in the House earlier.

"Unjust premise"

The issue saw a brief skirmish between Mr. Yechury and Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma. Raising the issue during zero hour, the CPI (M) leader accused the U.S. of imposing sanctions on the two companies — Balaji Amines and Prachi Poly Products — on an "unjust premise." Instead of "protesting," the Indian Government asked them to stop trading with Iran. Mr. Sharma said the Government "was neither being dictated to nor was acting under pressure." But in response to a query by Mr. Yechury whether the Government had told these firms in December last year (before the U.S. imposed the sanctions) not to do business with Iran, the Minister assured him that he would get back to the House with details.

Mr. Yechury said Balaji Amines was dealing in life-saving antibiotics and the Indian response asking them to stop trading with Iran was a "clear expression of extra nuclear deal pressures" on the Government and "these are being reflected in such decisions."

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