Kolkata, February 3
External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee said today that the Centre was going ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal and accordingly, the matter was at the discussion table at the IAEA.
Mukherjee was talking to mediapersons after attending an official function in the afternoon. He said the talks at the IAEA were progressing satisfactorily and later, the matter would be
once again discussed threadbare at the NSG in which other participating countries would also participate before finalising the deal.
The external affairs minister said the UPA was committed to hold talks with the Left parties before finally signing the agreement and that commitment would be honoured. He reiterated that the country’s sovereignty and other interests would not be disturbed in any manner by the deal and he hoped the CPM and other Left parties would not unnecessarily stand in the way of the country’s signing the agreement with the US.
Mukherjee said all other big nations of the world had already agreed to make a mutual agreement on the nuclear deal with USA for their respective interests. Hence it would be a foolish decision if India was now staying back from signing the Indo-US nuclear deal, he observed.
But the CPM and other Left parties have already reiterated their decision of opposing the nuclear deal since they were convinced that the proposed deal would make India yet another colony of US imperialism.
CPM general secretary Prakash Karat after the party’s recent politburo meeting in New Delhi had declared that they were waiting for the outcome of the talks at the IAEA and before the matter was taken to the NSG, they would press the Prime Minister and Pranab Mukherjee to apprise them about the progress of the talks and convince them that the deal would not disturb the country’s sovereignty and other interests. Then only would they allow the Centre to go ahead with the deal.
CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan and the RSP leader Debabrata Bandopadhyya declared that they would withdraw support from the UPA if the Centre was still going ahead with the deal against the country’s interest. The Forward Bloc had expressed the same view.
