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Karat: tell the nation what transpired at Manmohan’s meeting with Bush

Special Correspondent

— Photo: R.V. Moorthy

In black and white: Left leaders (from left) D. Raja, A.B. Bardhan, Prakash Karat and Debabrata Biswas releasing a book “Left’s Stand on the Nuclear Deal” in New Delhi on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said on Thursday that the government had violated the assurance given by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee that it would not send the safeguards agreement to the IAEA Board before the confidence vote.

“This is a blatant violation of the assurance given by the government, a betrayal of a moral commitment to the country,” he told a press conference.

He wondered how the government changed its position in less than 24 hours.

“There is no reason to doubt the integrity of Mr. Mukherjee who said that he had consulted the Prime Minister before telling the nation that the government would first seek a confidence vote.”

He said the Left parties wanted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to tell the nation and the people “what transpired in the meeting he had with U.S. President George W. Bush in Japan which led to the going back on a public pledge.”

“This is a very sad state of affairs. All sorts of concoctions are being put forth. We would like the Prime Minister to answer.” Mr. Karat said that till Wednesday evening the Congress spokesperson was stating that making the IAEA safeguards agreement text public would amount to “nuclear terrorism” and on Thursday the text “is put on the Ministry of External Affairs website.” He said that all talk of the text being ‘classified’ and ‘privileged’ was manufactured by the government but the IAEA had no problem in making it available to the public.

“Do not ridicule people in this manner. We also have intelligence,” Mr. Karat said. Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar had gone on record saying negotiations on the draft agreement with the IAEA were still in progress, but the government at the same time asked the IAEA secretariat to submit it for consideration by the Board of Governors.

The CPI(M) leader said there were three versions doing the rounds on the issue from three quarters — Mr. Mukherjee, Dr. Kakodkar and Congress spokespersons. “At least, put one version of lies and not different lies,” he quipped. While the government and the Congress were maintaining that the draft of the agreement was classified, “we got the text from various American websites. This is the plight of the country,” he said.

CPI leader A.B. Bardhan said the government’s move made the position of Mr. Mukherjee “untenable” as on two occasions he had said something and the government did something else. Asked whether Mr. Mukherjee should quit, the CPI leader said it was “up to his conscience.”

Mr. Karat said the Left parties would study the draft of the safeguards agreement and soon come out with their analysis and stand on the issue.

The Left leaders also released a compilation in book form “Left Stand on the Nuclear Deal,” containing notes exchanged on the UPA-Left Committee on the India-U.S. Civil Nuclear Cooperation.

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