NEW DELHI, 23 July 2005 — Howsoever “successful” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s three-day United States visit may be projected, the left parties are hardly pleased at it displaying a pro-US slant in India’s foreign policy.
The Left Front led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) yesterday asked the prime minister to clarify if New Delhi was having second thoughts on buying gas from Iran.
“We want the prime minister to clarify the reported statement in which he expressed doubts about the proposed gas pipeline from Iran to India through Pakistan,” CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat told reporters here.
Karat was referring to Manmohan Singh’s comments in the Washington Post in which he was quoted as saying that India needed to find new energy resources.
Manmohan Singh added: “I am realistic enough to realize that there are many risks, because considering all the uncertainties of the situation there in Iran, I don’t know if any international consortium of bankers would probably underwrite this.”
Karat said: “It is very unfortunate the prime minister made such a statement in Washington. All the three countries — India, Iran and Pakistan — are sovereign countries. And they have decided to go ahead with the project.”
He said Pakistan had already been threatened that it would face US sanctions if it went ahead with the project.
The four-party Left Front, which supports the government from outside, met yesterday to discuss Manmohan’s US visit and the Indo-US statement issued Tuesday.
India and US have decided to work closely on civilian nuclear cooperation, and Washington has tacitly recognized New Delhi as a nuclear weapons power.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused Manmohan Singh of “compromising India’s national interest” by signing the joint agreement.
The CPI-M, which has criticized the government for giving “undue concessions” to Washington, said the India-US nuclear agreement would hamper the country’s pursuit of an independent nuclear technology policy.
