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Left party leaders explain opposition to nuclear deal

— Photo: R. Ragu

Greeting each other: CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat calling on Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi in Chennai on Tuesday.

CHENNAI: Leaders of the two main Left parties met Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and explained their opposition to India’s nuclear deal with the United States ahead of their protest march, which is to be flagged off from Chennai to Visakhapatnam on Wednesday.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat accompanied by State secretary N. Varadarajan and Central Committee member T.K. Rengarajan met the Chief Minister at his Gopalapuram residence.

“I have met Kalaignar and reported to him the developments in Delhi recently, including the formation of a committee to go into the issues about the nuclear agreement,” Mr. Karat said after the meeting that lasted about half an hour. “I told him that this committee can look at all the issues and then we can decide how to resolve the problem.”

Asked if the CPI (M) sought the support of the DMK, he said he did not. One of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaders would be on the committee. “We will discuss [it] there,” he said.

Asked which deal with the United States was worse – the nuclear deal or the earlier defence deal – Mr. Karat said: “They are interconnected.”

Communist Party of India national secretary D. Raja, who met the Chief Minister later, said that he explained the opposition of the Left parties to the defence cooperation and the nuclear agreement, and about the march that the Left parties would be taking out in protest against the military exercises that had begun in the Bay of Bengal.

“I expressed our concern over the Indo-US nuclear deal and how we are justified in opposing the agreement. I explained my position,” Mr. Raja said and added, in response to a question, that he did not seek the support of the DMK. He said the nuclear deal could not be seen in isolation.

“It should be seen in the totality of the emerging strategic relationship between India and the U.S. and also with the deepening military cooperation between India and the U.S. That is where we have genuine concern and that is why we oppose the text and the context of the 123 agreement,” Mr. Raja said.

On the criticism of the Bharatiya Janata Party that the Left parties were enacting a drama, he said that the BJP was known for its hypocrisy.

“The entire strategic relationship began when the BJP was in power,” he said.

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