Date:10/08/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/10/stories/2007081056391400.htm

National

Left Front: discuss pact in Parliament

Special Correspondent

Kolkata: West Bengal’s ruling Left Front on Thursday demanded that the nuclear agreement with the United States not be made operational and be taken up for discussion in Parliament, though the Prime Minister has asserted that the deal cannot be re-negotiated.

“The Left parties have consistently held that the agreement should not be seen in isolation from the overall strategic tie-up with the U.S.,” Chairman of the Left Front Committee Biman Bose said.

Members of Parliament should be given an opportunity to place their views and seek changes in the “obnoxious provisions in the deal” and insert new paragraphs, he said. “The binding ties of the Hyde Act will be dangerous for India’s foreign policy and will be an attack on the Constitution,” Mr. Bose said.