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Struggle not over, says Karat

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Sunday said it will fight back India’s strategic alliance with the United States and the “surrender” the nuclear agreement entails. It asserted that its goal was to see that a new government terminated the 123 Agreement.

At the end of a two-day Polit Bureau meeting, the CPI(M) described the waiver by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to India as “another surrender” and declared that the party’s political battle would be conducted here.

“Our political battle is here and not in Washington or Vienna. Earlier, we withdrew support on this issue and we are now fighting against the ruling coalition. The struggle to rescind this deal is not over,” party general secretary Prakash Karat said at a press conference.

After the next general election, the CPI(M) would work to see that the new government took steps to terminate the 123 Agreement. The NSG waiver represented another surrender by the Manmohan Singh government in its journey to operationalise the nuclear deal. The voluntary moratorium on testing had now become part of a multilateral commitment, he pointed out.

“Restrictions on transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technology will continue. India has become part of the non-proliferation regime, which it always held to be discriminatory. The NSG waiver is in alignment with the 123 Agreement and India will not get any better terms from other countries supplying fuel or reactors.”

The country was being subjected to an orchestrated barrage of propaganda that termed the NSG waiver a “historic one.” The reality had been mercilessly exposed by the U.S. State Department’s interpretation that was sought to be kept secret.

Referring to the text of the waiver, the Polit Bureau said Para 3 made it clear that the separation plan outlined in the July 18, 2005 Manmohan Singh- Bush joint statement and the September 5 statement of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee formed the basis of the waiver. All other governments would now align with the 123 Agreement and India would not get any better terms from other countries supplying fuel or reactors.

With Mr. Mukherjee’s statement, India had now committed itself to aligning with international efforts to “limit the spread of ENR [enrichment and reprocessing] equipment or technologies to states who do not have them,” an obvious reference to Iran and committing India to join the U.S.’ efforts to deny Iran the fuel cycle, it said.

On ENR, the reference to NSG guidelines Para 6&7 in Para 3a made it clear that the restrictions on transfer of such technologies would continue. “Though India is not part of the NSG, it has agreed to an open-ended commitment that it will abide by all NSG guidelines, including future changes, irrespective of what the changes might be.”

Similary, India had agreed to abide by an Additional Protocol with the IAEA that was yet to be even finalised, let alone signed, as part of the basis for the waiver. The NSG would closely monitor and review all nuclear transactions by regular exchange of information on all nuclear transfers with India. By Para 3e of the waiver text, any NSG member may choose to call for consultations on implementation of the terms of the waiver if they felt that the occasion had arisen to do so.

“It is clear that the terms of the waiver afford every opportunity for any NSG country [through consultations under Para 16 of the NSG guidelines] to block separate deals that India may contemplate with countries such as France and Russia that offer more advantageous terms on issues like cooperation in uranium enrichment and reprocessing,” the Polit Bureau said.

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