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Repudiate 123 Agreement: CPI(M)

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Wednesday re-emphasised that India should repudiate the 123 agreement with the United States since it was fully in conformity with the Hyde Act and “violates the crucial commitments” made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament.

This becomes clear in the documents submitted by the Bush Administration to U.S. Congress along with the Presidential Determination on the Indo-U.S. civil nuclear cooperation, the party Polit Bureau said in a statement here and cited five key areas on which Washington’s interpretation was different from that of New Delhi.

These are: fuel supply assurances and IAEA safeguards; full cooperation in civilian nuclear technology; consent to reprocess; extraneous issues tied with nuclear cooperation; and Missile Technology Control Regime.

“The time has come for the Indian government to repudiate the 123 Agreement, which is not in India’s national interest. The government has no option, as the argument that India has a different interpretation of the 123 Agreement is meaningless. The U.S., as a supplier of nuclear equipment and materials, will undertake such supply only under the terms of what it calls a ‘framework agreement.’ A different interpretation of the 123 Agreement by India will in no way bind the U.S. as a supplier,” the party said.

It pointed out the areas of concern — that India will not have any uninterrupted fuel supply assurance; have to place it civilian reactors under IAEA safeguards in perpetuity; not have any assurance regarding stockpiling fuel reserves for the lifetime of the reactors; not have access to full civilian nuclear technology; corrective measures like taking out reactors out of IAEA safeguards will be impermissible; consent to reprocessing of spent fuel only notional; U.S. can terminate the 123 Agreement at will and stop all supplies immediately; and India will have to align its foreign policy to that of the U.S., particularly on Iran have been confirmed by the documents.

False claims exposed

The documents accompanying the U.S. Presidential Determination have exposed the hollowness of the claims made by the Prime Minister. It said the documents made it clear that U.S. interpretation on five key areas made the 123 Agreement almost identical to the Tarapur one, where India had been forced to run from pillar to post for fuel after the U.S. unilaterally terminated the Tarapur 123 Agreement.

The Polit Bureau demanded that the Prime Minister fulfil his pledge to the nation that he would walk away from the nuclear deal if it did not meet India’s expectations.

Left, BSP to intensify protest on session

Atiq Khan reports from Lucknow:

The Left and the Bahujan Samaj Party, along with other like-minded parties, will intensify their protest against the Parliament session not being convened by the United Progressive Alliance government and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the United States on September 25 to finalise the nuclear deal.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said here on Wednesday that a joint announcement in this regard would be made by the Left, the BSP, the Telugu Desam Party, the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Jharkhand Vikas Party in Delhi on Friday.

Mr. Karat, who was here to attend a two-day State council meeting of the party’s U.P. unit, said he was in touch with the leaders of other parties. He had a telephonic talk with Chief Minister Mayawati on this issue on Wednesday.

While denying any discussion on seat-sharing in the State with Ms. Mayawati for the coming Lok Sabha election, he said talks were on between the parties on how to face the election.

Critical of the Centre’s failure to adopt a pro-active role in containing the communal violence in Orissa and Mangalore, Mr. Karat said the Centre should have done more to aid and advice the Orissa government. As for Mangalore, he said a more forthright approach was needed.

Mr. Karat slammed the RSS, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal for their efforts to create communal tension, which seemed to be their “overall design keeping in mind the Lok Sabha election.”

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