NEW DELHI: The left bloc decided yesterday to withdraw support to the Congress party-led ruling United Progressive Alliance in protest against a civilian nuclear deal with the United States.
The decision was taken at a joint meeting of four left-wing parties — the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Communist Party of India, the Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party. They decided to take this step, following Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s announcement, the preceding day that the government would “very soon” approach the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to move forward on the nuclear deal. Disturbed by this statement, Prakash Karat, head of the CPI (M), India’s biggest communist party, told reporters that the “time has come” to withdraw their support.
The four parties, which say the deal makes India subservient to Washington, will call for a vote of no confidence in Singh’s government. The government believes it will survive the vote, having secured parliamentary support from the regional Samajwadi Party.
The parties have sought an appointment with President Pratibha Patil to submit their letter of withdrawal. They have also sent a letter to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, saying that there was no point in going ahead with the proposed meeting of UPA-Left Coordination Committee meeting on the deal in view of the prime minister’s remarks.
Singh, in Japan this week for a G-8 summit where he is expected to tell US President George W. Bush that the deal will go ahead, shrugged off fears for his government.
“I just learned it (about the withdrawal). But I don’t think it will affect the stability of our government,” Singh said in Sapporo, where he was meeting the leaders of other big emerging economies on the summit sidelines.
The withdrawal and likely holding of a vote of no confidence will lead to a period of political uncertainty just as the government is grappling with inflation at a 13-year high and signs of an economic slowdown. Markets have already been hit over the last week by fears for the government of Asia’s third-biggest economy.
But the pact’s approval would be a major success for Singh, giving India access to US nuclear fuel and technology and moving the Asian giant’s trade and diplomatic relations closer to the West.
Others, however, criticize the deal for reversing 30 years of US policy opposing nuclear cooperation with India after it developed nuclear weapons in contravention of global rules and never signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
It was “critical” for the country that the safeguards agreement with the IAEA was discussed with “full transparency and not kept a secret,” Karat said. “Once the text of safeguards agreement is approved by the IAEA Board, which is what the UPA government seeks to do now, the subsequent steps require no participation at all by the government of India,” he said.
— With input from agencies
