Continuing to articulate its reservations on the Indo-US nuclear deal, the CPI (M) on Monday said the agreement would adversely impact India’s long-term interests and would threaten the country’s national sovereignty. The US motives are to enlist India as a “junior partner”, politburo member Sitaram Yechury said. The Indian government, because of US pressure, is also discouraging the Essar group and other companies working in Iran, the party charged.
At the start of the two-day meeting of the CPI (M) politburo on Monday, Yechuri asserted that the Left Parties might well have permitted the union government to go to the IAEA, but would continue to oppose the deal.
Yechury said that because of certain recent developments, it had become all the more clear that the US was pursuing the nuclear deal as a strategy to increase its dominance in South Asia. He said that the State Bank of India had stopped providing Letters of Credit to Indian companies working in Iran. “The Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline was a major project that would take forward India’s goals of providing for energy security. But there has been no forward movement on the deal because of US pressure”, Yechury said.