The government's decision to bar Indian companies from using the Asian Clearing Union to process payments for oil and gas imports is against national interest and “a shameful surrender” to the United States foreign policy agenda, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau said in a statement.
The CPI(M) has demanded revocation of the measure and called on other parties to put pressure on the government.
The government's ‘genuflection' to the U.S. was all the more apparent because the sanctions imposed by the United Nations exclude imports in the energy sector and, therefore, it is not at all incumbent on India, as a member of the U.N., to take such a step. “It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the U.S. spokesman on the issue should praise India's ‘significant action'.”
The party said this measure would directly affect the import of gas and crude oil from Iran — constituting 16 to 17 per cent of the country's crude oil requirements.
“The Americans have been pressuring India, as Iran's largest trading partner in the ACU, to close down this route as they consider it a barrier to the implementation of the U.S.'s arbitrarily imposed sanctions on all companies doing trade with Iran,” it added.
