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Monday, Oct 22, 2007
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Wait for Bush to complete term: Yechury

Special Correspondent

“International agreements and policies best left to new President”

UPA, Left constituents to meet today
“Congress not a natural ally of Left”

Sitaram Yechury

BANGALORE: India should not operationalise the nuclear deal with the U.S. and should wait till President George W. Bush completed his term, Communist Party of India(Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said here on Sunday.

Speaking to presspersons, Mr. Yechury, who returned to the city after attending a seminar on globalisation and culture organised at Chitradurga, said according to international norms no international agreement was signed when the government was about to change.

International agreements and policies were best left to the new President. No nuclear agreement will yield any result for another decade and no reactor would be coming to the country immediately.

The constituents of the United Progressive Alliance and the Left parties will meet on Monday in New Delhi to discuss the findings of the Committee on the nuclear deal. The Committee will also go into the security concerns and possible impact of the deal on the foreign policy before taking any decision on its operationalisation.

Doha talks

On the Doha round of talks and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement that India was ready to follow a give-and-take policy, Mr. Yechury said the country could not withdraw from its stated position. While the West, including the U.S, was offering subsidies to the extent of 200 per cent on agricultural products, it wanted India to reduce the subsidy to below 10 per cent. He said subsidy was also given to non-agricultural produce in the U.S.

Mr. Yechury said that India should be given the same percentage of subsidy, that was given to U.S agriculturists and there should not be any discrimination.

Third alternative

He also said that the process of forming a third alternative, comprising the Left, to the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party was on.

The CPI(M), he said, was not interested in a third front, which was nothing but a cut-and-paste arrangement. Instead, he wanted an alternative to both the mainstream parties, coming together through a peoples’ movement.

On the political scenario in Karnataka, Mr. Yechury said the State witnessed rapid communalisation of politics during the coalition government headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy, because of sharing of power with the BJP.

The CPI(M) leader said he welcomed former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda’s decision to withdraw support to the coalition government. But, was hesitant to reply where Mr. Gowda stands.

On the Sethusamudram issue, he said it was not related to Lord Rama, but whether the bridge was man-made or a natural formation. The Congress, Mr. Yechury said, was correct in withdrawing the affidavit.

He said the issue also exposed the rank opportunism and ideological bankruptcy of the BJP. The then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha had allocated funds in his budget for the project, but the party was trying to disown the decision.

Asked what prevented the CPI(M) from extending its alliance with the Congress to other States , Mr. Yechury said the Congress was not a natural ally of the Left .

He said that 54 MPs from the Left parties had defeated Congress candidates in West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala.

The CPI(M) leader said that the alliance was working on the basis of the Common Minimum Programme and the Left had succeeded in preventing the Congress from violating the CMP.

The nuclear deal was the only major violation during the three year rule.

Staff Correspondent writes from Chitradurga:

Mr. Yechury said here that the Congress should honour the agreement it had entered with the Left parties while forming the United Progressive Alliance Government.

He was reacting to the difference prevailing between the parties over the India-U.S. nuclear deal.

It’s up to Congress

He told The Hindu after participating in a lecture session organised by the Murugharajendra math, here on Saturday, that, “ time and again, we have made our point clear on the nuclear agreement, now it is the duty of the Congress to consider our view.”

When asked what about his party’s next stand would be if the Congress goes ahead with the deal, he said any decision would be taken only after Monday’s meeting to discuss issue. “ We will opt wait and watch policy”, he said.

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