“The Left is determined to oppose this deal and we think it is bad for our country,” CPM general secretary Prakash Karat told NDTV.

Karat reminded the UPA that it is a coalition government and said it will have to come to terms with the “fact that a majority” of the political parties and Members of Parliament do not want the deal to go ahead.

To a query that India had an international commitment to see that the deal is implemented, Karat said “ no agreement can be put above Parliament and the interest of this country.”

Asked for his response on the planned Indo-Russian nuclear agreement not being signed during the recent visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Moscow, Karat said, “The inference is clear. This government (UPA) does not want to displease the Americans.”

In Karat’s view, India should have gone ahead with the agreement just as it did with the US on the 123 agreement.

Since the government was in any case approaching the IAEA for India-specific nuclear safeguards talks, it could have gone with the Russian agreement too, he said.

“The IAEA could have been told that India wants to put the reactors which Russia is supplying also under safeguards,” he added.

“Why is it that we are totally reliant on one bilateral agreement — the 123 agreement,” he asked, adding that there is no “Russian Hyde Act” which may put brakes on future nuclear tests by India.

“There is no Russian Hyde Act and we are not going to the IAEA for the Russian agreement but we still want to go for the 123 agreement,” he added.