Date:09/09/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/09/09/stories/2007090961171100.htm

National

Left won’t allow UPA to go back on CMP

Staff Reporter

Nuclear deal totally against CMP: Brinda

Politics is no child’s game where one can go back on rules
Ratification necessary considering impact

ALAPPUZHA: Reiterating that the India-U.S. nuclear deal would in effect compromise the nation’s sovereignty, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member and Rajya Sabha MP Brinda Karat on Saturday said the Left would not allow the United Progressive Alliance to go back on the terms agreed to in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP).

Politics was not a child’s game where one could go back on the rules agreed to before the match began, she said speaking at the inaugural of the eighth State conference of the All-India Democratic Women’s Association here.

“This is not the way a coalition government can or should function. The nuclear deal is totally against the CMP, which is the basis of the UPA government’s functioning.

“The UPA is a minority government which cannot rule the country on its own even for a single day. It is the 61 MPs of the Left, with the CMP as the bridge between them and the UPA, who are keeping them in power. We cannot accept a change in the CMP midway,” she said.

Rubbishing the claim that the nuclear deal would help to end electricity shortage and in turn help poor farmers, Ms. Karat said nuclear power would be three times more expensive than thermal or hydro power.

Questioning the morality and ethics of a deal which did not have the support of the majority in Parliament, Ms. Karat said the situation was such that an Indian MP’s vote on an issue concerning India did not have half the value of the vote of an American senator on the same issue.

“We agree that international treaties do not require the ratification of Parliament. But keeping in mind the impact of such treaties, this ratification is necessary. The American Parliament can vote on the treaty, but the Indian Parliament cannot. Even if we cannot vote on this, isn’t there a moral strength in the argument that the opinion of a majority in Parliament should be binding on the government?”

Ridicules navy exercises

Ms. Karat ridiculed the India-U.S. joint naval drills, saying the government, which said it did not have the money to issue ration cards to poor women, somehow found the funds to conduct such expensive exercises and also to import costly nuclear reactors.