http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=101184&d=14&m=9&y=2007
Friday, 14, September, 2007 (02, Ramadhan, 1428)
Communists Threaten to Withdraw Support If Delhi Signs Deal
With US
Nilofar Suhrawardy & Shahid Raza Burney, Arab News
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI, 14 September 2007 - Indian communists
threatened yesterday they would pull out of the government if it pursued a
nuclear deal with the United States, their most blunt threat in a month-old
political crisis that has shaken the coalition.
The comments by Prakash Karat, head of the largest of the
four left parties that shore up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government,
made it more likely that Manmohan's government would not last its entire
five-year term, analysts said.
With Manmohan unlikely to back down over the nuclear deal, he
may have to choose between continuing in power as head of a minority government
or calling elections before his term ends in May 2009.
"We won't be there to help this government conclude this
agreement," said Prakash Karat, the chief of the Communist Party of India
(Marxist) (CPI-M). "That's final." The communists, who have 60 MPs in the
545-member lower house of Parliament, had in the past warned the government of
"serious consequences" if it went ahead with the deal, without spelling out
what those consequences could be.
The pact - seen as a sign of booming economic and strategic
ties between the two powerful democracies - allows India to import US nuclear
fuel and reactors, despite having tested nuclear weapons and not signing the
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The left says the deal undermines India's independent foreign
policy and draws New Delhi into a strategic alliance with Washington.
In order to get the pact working on the ground, New Delhi
needs to conclude India-specific safeguards for its civilian reactors with the
International Atomic Energy Agency and also get the backing of the Nuclear
Suppliers Group of nations.
Besides, the US Congress also needs to approve it again.
Karat said the government must not go ahead with talks with
the IAEA if it wants the communists to continue support.
"Don't go. Wait for some time. Listen to our objections.
Examine these objections. Let Parliament opine on it," he told a seminar on the
deal. "But they have not so far agreed. This is not a normal matter of
differences between us. The question is, why this determination to go ahead
despite the fact that the main parties on which the government depends on for
its majority say no."
The government and communists have set up a panel meant to
resolve differences over the deal, but Karat's comments show that finding
common ground will be extremely difficult.
"Each side is playing its cards in the expectation that the
other would not press the matter to the point of an immediate election,"
political analyst Pran Chopra said.
But with the left intensifying pressure, the government was
unlikely to last its full term, he said.
"I think there will be elections after the budget," Chopra
said. The annual budget is presented to Parliament on Feb. 28.
In another development, three former judges said the deal
cannot be implemented unless approved by Parliament.
In a joint statement former Supreme Court judges - Justice
V.R. Krishna Iyer and P.B. Saant - and former Bombay High Court Judge Hosbet
Suresh said, "The agreement will be binding only when it is ratified by
Parliament.
"It is clear that the Indo-US nuclear deal cannot be
implemented unless it is made into a law by Parliament," the joint statement
said and added, "It is unfortunate that the government is rushing through this
deal even before the US has got its laws, including the Hyde Act 2006, amended
to ensure lifetime uninterrupted fuel supplies, under all circumstances for the
nuclear reactors we intend to import.
"As it stands, the 123 Agreement of August 2007 does not in
any way provide assurances of uninterrupted fuel supply," the former judges
said.
They said Article 253 gives Parliament the power to make laws
on treaties with other governments or even on decisions made in international
conferences. "It is clear that treaties signed with other countries at
international conferences have to be translated into laws," the judges
concluded.
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