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AIFB reminds Centre of Left’s concerns

KOLKATA: A day before a reply is expected from the United Progressive Alliance government to the note submitted to the UPA-Left committee on September 14 expressing specific concerns of the Left parties on the India-United States nuclear deal, one of the six representatives of the Left parties reminded the Centre on Sunday that “only a government without our support could plan to go ahead with the deal.”

“Time is running out even though we are yet to set a time-frame for the Centre to complete examining our concerns over the deal,” Debabrata Biswas, general secretary of the All India Forward Bloc, who is a member of the recently set up 15-member political committee to address the Left parties’ concerns over the deal, told The Hindu from New Delhi.

Significantly, at a convention held in the capital on September 13 on the implications of the deal on democracy and sovereignty, Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had, in a similar vein, reportedly said that the Left parties would not be there to help the government operationalise the nuclear deal.

“The first UPA-Left committee meeting on the deal was one, where the Left concerns were only endorsed for further discussions. We want the discussions to continue for now and are awaiting the September 19 UPA-Left meeting, where the government’s response to our note is expected to be taken up,” he said.

“The assurance so far received is very clear - that the UPA government will not proceed further with operationalising the nuclear deal till the findings of the committee are finalised,” Mr. Biswas said.

The initial note submitted by the Left parties to the convener of the political committee, External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, states the Left parties concerns over the impact of U.S. national laws, particularly the Hyde Act, on the nuclear deal, the India specific safeguards that should not come up for negotiations in the course of the International Atomic Energy Agency deliberations in Vienna.

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