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No compromise on nuclear deal, says V.S. Achuthanandan

Thiruvananthapuram: As uncertainty looms over the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member and Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has made it clear that his party will not hesitate to withdraw support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre if it goes ahead with the agreement.

“The party will not allow the UPA government to proceed with the pact to help U.S. President George W. Bush when elections are round the corner in America,” Mr. Achuthanandan said. India is in the midst of negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to firm up a safeguards agreement before approaching the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for changes in its guidelines to permit international nuclear commerce, the 84-year-old Marxist veteran who completed 20 months in office on Friday said.

Mr. Achuthanandan’s remark comes within days of CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu and general secretary Prakash Karat clarifying that while they stoutly oppose the nuclear deal, there is no threat to the UPA government. The UPA-Left committee on the nuclear deal is likely to meet before the budget session of Parliament to take stock of the negotiations at the IAEA.

Mr. Achuthanandan, who has been having a running battle with party State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, felt that factionalism was not an issue that should be addressed merely in the context of Kerala alone. He contended that the CPI(M) is a national party and not a ‘Kerala Socialist Party,’ implying that certain issues had to be settled by the party’s Central leadership and not at the State level. He was responding to questions on continuing factional feuds in the State unit identified with groups led by him and Mr. Vijayan. When his attention was drawn to Mr. Vijayan’s repeated assertion that factionalism would end once and for all with the conclusion of the coming party State meet at Kottayam, he said “factionalism is not something that can be tethered at a place.”

The Polit Bureau will intervene if any “mistake” is found in the conduct of party conferences being held in Kerala, he said.

The Polit Bureau had given a set of clear directives to the State unit for conducting triennial party conferences ahead of the 19th Party Congress to be held in Coimbatore in March.

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