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National interest betrayed, says Buddhadeb

KOLKATA: The United Progressive Alliance government has betrayed the national interest by going in for the India-United States nuclear deal that should not be viewed in isolation but as part of an overall strategic alliance with the U.S. that includes a defence framework agreement, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here on Tuesday.

“We [the Left parties] were aware of the government gradually turning away from the Common Minimum Programme. But by going in for the deal it had betrayed the national interest. We have had to withdraw our support to the UPA government as we realised that it was taking the country down a disastrous path in which what the U.S. says will prevail in a unipolar world,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said.

He was speaking at a function to commemorate the 120th birth anniversary of Muzaffar Ahmed, a pioneer of the Communist movement in the country.

The Muzaffar Ahmed Memorial Awards, 2008, were presented to Dr. Anwar Hossain for his book “Muslim women’s struggle for freedom in colonial Bengal 1873-1940” and to Malini Bhattacharya for her book titled “Manik Bandopadhyay” in Bengali.

Asked whether the withdrawal of support to the UPA would impact relations between the Centre and the States where the Left was in power, Mr. Bhattacharjee said. “Why should that be? We were elected to government not at the mercy of the Congress,” he pointed out.

The interests of the Left-ruled States “were not perceived in a narrow-minded way” when the decision was taken to withdraw support to the government, he remarked.

The former Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu, who could not attend the function due to health reasons, said in a statement that “the UPA government had been told that the Left parties would not be able to accept it adopting policies that served the interests of the U.S.” It was a matter of regret that after the National Democratic Alliance government pursued a foreign policy that leaned towards the U.S., the UPA did the same when it assumed power, he said.

Pointing out that the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal was anchored in the Hyde Act, Biman Bose, Secretary of the West Bengal State Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said the Prime Minister was trying his utmost to ensure that the country turned into becoming “a small brother of the U.S.”

The deal was aimed at furthering the designs of U.S. imperialism and open up the country to U.S. big corporate houses,” he added.

Mr. Bose said it was important to keep in mind that “the party is greater than friends and not the other way around.” Those who were bent on promoting their personal interests by staying on in the party “should be removed as soon as possible.”

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