NEW DELHI, 12 August 2007 — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has dared the left to withdraw support to his United Progressive Alliance government over the India-US nuclear deal, insisting that the deal cannot be renegotiated.

“I told them that it is not possible to renegotiate the deal. It is an honorable deal, the Cabinet has approved it, we cannot go back on it. I told them to do whatever they want to do, if they want to withdraw support, so be it...” Manmohan Singh told the Kolkata-based Telegraph newspaper.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led left parties, which have rejected the 123 agreement between New Delhi and Washington, have warned of “serious consequences” if the UPA government went ahead with the deal.

But Manmohan reminded his communist allies, who extend crucial support to his multiparty government, that they needed to work together and that the UPA-left alliance could not be a one-sided affair. “I don’t get angry, I don’t want to use harsh words. They are our colleagues and we have to work with them. But they also have to learn to work with us,” he said.

The Congress-led UPA and the left have had a love-hate relationship since this government was formed in May 2004, with the leftists protesting its economic and foreign policies. However, both Manmohan and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi have never been harsh vis-a-vis the left.

According to the prime minister, the left did not understand the 123 agreement and India’s inherent strengths and its improved status in the world clearly.

“I don’t know (why the left is opposing the deal)... they (left) seem to have a problem with the United States.

Referring to the left’s argument that the nuclear agreement would draw India into a strategic alliance with US as an American satellite, Manmohan said: “How can we ever become anyone’s satellite? Yes, we live in an increasingly interdependent world but the challenge before us is to forge new linkages, widen our strategic options and, at the same time, guard against the negative side of the process of globalization.”

He also indicated that the left should learn from China and other communist countries.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday asked the Left parties to react to Manmohan’s comments. “Will they (the left) now bite? If they really believe that the 123 agreement is not in India’s national interest they should vote against it (in Parliament) in the larger national interest,” BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

On whether the left will withdraw support, Sitaram Yechury of CPI-M said: “Everything should not be linked with pulling down the government. Our concern is with the nuclear deal. Governments will come and go but the agreement will remain.”  

Earlier, the CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat had said: “We will oppose the deal in Parliament. The UPA is a minority in Parliament. If the government pursues the deal, we will also go to the people and it will have to pay a heavy political price.”

In a statement, Karat said: “As far as the approach to the government is concerned, we will take our own counsel. The prime minister and the government must realize that this agreement is not acceptable to the majority in Parliament.”

“We do not share the optimism that India can become a great power with the help of the United States,” Karat said.