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Tuesday, Sep 02, 2008
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Defence cooperation is the real issue: Karat

Staff Reporter

Kozhikode: Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat has said there is more to the India-U.S. nuclear agreement than meets the eye.

He was delivering a talk on the ‘Indo-U.S. nuclear deal: after effects’, organised by the DC Books in connection with its fifth international book festival here on Monday.

Mr. Karat said that a few weeks before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh committed himself to U.S. President George W. Bush to signing the nuclear deal in July 2005, New Delhi had entered into a defence framework with Washington. The U.S. administration offered nuclear cooperation only after India signed the defence deal. This was the real issue and the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal was a sweetener, he said.

Four components

The CPI(M) leader pointed out that there were four components to the statement signed between Dr. Singh and Mr. Bush then. One of them was that India and the U.S. would have a political collaboration to spread democracy around the world. The second feature was that both countries would enter into strategic economic partnership that was unfolded a year later during Mr. Bush’s visit to India.

A joint forum of 10 chief executive officers of India and the U.S. agreed to a common structure of cooperation. The blueprint for the agreement was now being implemented by way of increasing foreign direct investment in the insurance and banking sectors. The joint forum had put forth 30 recommendations, Mr. Karat said.

Joint military exercises

The third part was defence cooperation, which was dealt with the utmost care by the Pentagon and the U.S. administration. A salient feature was that of India agreeing to joint military exercises. The fourth component was both countries going for defence production collaboration.

Mr. Karat said Dr. Singh did not want to retract his commitment to the Bush administration he made three years ago. Though the Prime Minister would deny that India was a defence ally, the Pentagon had posted on its website this agreement. In this case, the U.S. administration was more honest than the Manmohan Singh government, he said.

Regional allies

Even with its military powers, the U.S. could not maintain its hegemony over the globe until it had regional allies. India would be a balancing power in the 21st century. That was why the U.S. was desperate to push ahead with the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal. At the same time, the Hyde Act would be dangerously binding on India if the country signed and put into operation the nuclear deal, he said.

The provisions in the Hyde Act and 123 Agreement empowered the U.S. to take back all nuclear supplies if India conducted a nuclear test again, Mr. Karat said.

He released “Aanavakarar: Kenikalum Charadukalum” by Ninan Koshy, handing over a copy to A. Pradeepkumar MLA.

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