Indian PM challenges communist allies over nuclear deal with US - International Herald Tribune

Indian PM challenges communist allies over nuclear deal with US - International Herald Tribune

The Indian Prime Minister seems to living far away from reality. First of all we should know that Left Front doesn't need Prime Minister's advice if it wants to withdraw the support for the UPA government in the Parliament. The real issue here is the ideology. The Left Front may not be able to handle the backlash if it decides to support the Prime Minister on the 123 Nuclear Pact. Supporting the pact would mean that the Left Front will lose support from a part of its core support group i.e., Muslims. Secondly, the Prime Minister seems to be in a rush to go ahead with the 123 Pact right away.

In a democratic system it is not without costs if the Prime Minister decides to ignore the majority in the Parliament.

In my view it is a minor event if the UPA government falls due to differences with the Left over the 123 Pact. Prime Minister should have known it better. He should have taken all major parties in confidence before finalizing the deal. On the matters of serious national significance who gives a damn if the government falls. The government of today can only use the mandate it has AND not pretend that it can do whatever it likes.

Instead of threatening the Left Front, the Prime Minister needs to look at his own actions. A treaty negotiated by bunch of bureaucrats can't be legitimate and credible unless the Parliament debates and approves it.

It may appear that the Left Front is artificially scolding the Prime Minister but issue is lot more serious than that. I do not think that the Left Front has too many options available to them. They can very well abstain from voting or vote against the 123 Nuclear Pact in the larger interest of the country. It is highly likely that we may even see a no-confidence against the UPA government in the Parliament. This debate will put many UPA govt partners on defensive.

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Here is the text of the article I am blogging:

Indian PM challenges communist allies over nuclear deal with US

The Associated Press
Saturday, August 11, 2007
NEW DELHI: India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has challenged his communist party allies in a deepening rift over a nuclear deal with the United States, saying in a report Saturday they were free to withdraw their support from the government if they object to the pact.

The four-party, Left Front alliance said days ago that it rejected the deal, which allows India to buy nuclear fuel and technology from the U.S., and which has been hailed as the cornerstone of an emerging alliance between India and the U.S.

"I told them that it is not possible to re-negotiate the deal. It is an honorable deal, the Cabinet has approved it, we cannot go back on it," Singh said in an interview published Saturday in the Calcutta-based newspaper The Telegraph.

"I told them to do whatever they want to do, if they want to withdraw support, so be it," Singh was quoted as saying.

Calcutta is a bastion of the communist parties.

While the communists cannot torpedo the deal, which does not require parliamentary approval, they could bring down the Congress party-led governing coalition that they support from the outside.

However, analysts said that while the communists would continue to oppose the deal and closer ties with the U.S., it was highly unlikely that they would bring the government down because they stood to lose too much if the opposition Hindu nationalists returned to power.

"The left will not let the government fall," said Pran Chopra, a New Delhi-based political analyst.

The communist parties declined to comment on the remarks.

Singh said in the interview that the communists only opposed the deal because "they seem to have a problem with the U.S."

During the Cold War, India largely supported the Soviet Union.

The deal allows the United States to ship nuclear fuel and technology to India, which in exchange would open its civilian nuclear reactors to international inspectors. India's military reactors would remain off-limits.

India also needs to make separate agreements with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and with the Nuclear Suppliers Group, an assembly of nations that export nuclear material.

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