NEW DELHI, 1 October 2005 — India’s communist party leader has said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should “undo the damage” from New Delhi’s vote against Iran’s nuclear program, as leftists continue to pile pressure on the government.
The remarks by Prakash Karat, who called Manmohan’s decision a “final act of surrender” to the United States, were published a day after millions of workers held a general strike over his economic policy that crippled the nation.
Karat blamed Manmohan for India’s vote in favor of a motion passed last weekend at the UN’s nuclear watchdog which would refer Iran, a longtime ally of India, to the UN Security Council over its nuclear program.
In an interview with the Indian Express newspaper, he said India had to reverse the “pro-US” decision taken at the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“By the next board meeting of the IAEA in November, the Indian government will have to undo the damage,” the paper quoted him as saying.
The row over the vote and the general strike have marked an escalation of tensions between the government and the communists, who provide Manmohan’s ruling coalition with a majority in Parliament.
Karat, known as the Red Czar for his hard-line politics, did not go so far as to threaten to withdraw support for Manmohan’s government but pressed for a change in policies.
“It is necessary for all the left and democratic forces to mobilize the people in defense of an independent foreign policy,” he said.
Independent political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan said the latest events marked “the end of the honeymoon” between the left and Manmohan’s Congress party. “There’s no way the left can support what it sees as a betrayal” of India’s tradition of non-alignment, he said.
The government will “find itself checkmated in a variety of ways — on any economic reform that requires legislative approval, for instance,” he said.
The government has already had to retreat on some reforms in the face of communist opposition, including selling stakes in state-run firms.
The United States has accused Iran of hiding secret nuclear weapons work, but Tehran says it is pursuing a peaceful civilian nuclear program.
Iran has reacted sharply to New Delhi’s vote but denied there was any risk to a recent $22 billion gas purchase deal or a proposed pipeline to India via Pakistan.
India has said its vote was aimed at staving off Tehran’s immediate referral to the Security Council and says it has no reservations about Iran’s right to a nuclear energy program.
The US has agreed to aid India with its civilian nuclear program. Yesterday, US President George W. Bush and Manmohan Singh discussed the implementation of the landmark nuclear pact they signed in July. “President Bush called the prime minister this evening,” Manmohan’s media adviser Sanjaya Baru told The Associated Press.
“The two leaders reviewed the implementation of the July 18 joint statement and other bilateral issues, and touched on developments in the region,” he said.
India’s ambassador to the United States has denied intense US pressure prompted India to support the EU resolution on Iran at the IAEA. In fact, he said, it almost had the opposite effect.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Ambassador Ronen Sen said India’s concern that it might appear to be buckling under US pressure was “a huge stumbling block in making the decision, which would have happened anyway.”
Top US officials had repeatedly urged India to support referring Iran to the Security Council, the United Nations’ top decision-making body. Referral to the Council would carry an implicit threat of sanctions.
