Amidst the UPA-Left tussle over the Indo-US nuclear deal the CPI(M) on Tuesday asked the government not to operationalise the controversial agreement for at least six months.

Addressing a CPI(M) rally against the deal here, party General Secretary Prakash Karat said the government should wait for a full-fledged discussion on the Indo-US nuclear deal in the Parliament before proceeding with it.
“Do not operationalise the deal for at least six months. The government should wait for the outcome of a discussion in Parliament before taking any decision in this matter,” Karat said.

He reminded the UPA leadership about the Common Minimum Programme which focused on independent foreign policy and said any attempt to break such promises would lead to a “political crisis”.

“The government need to know that the majority in Parliament is against the deal. No further steps should be taken towards operationalisation of the deal. Parliament needs to debate it first,” he said.

The Marxist leader observed that the deal would only benefit American multinational companies, which would sell their nuclear plant equipment in the event of such a deal.

Maintaining that the Enron experience would be repeated in case the Government goes ahead with the deal.
“The government merely says the country needs power and the nuclear deal will help us improve the power scenario in the country. What the government is not telling us is what is the cost at which this power is going to be made available and how much money we will have to put in for nuclear power plants?” Karat said.
The Left parties have already submitted a note containing their apprehensions over the nuclear deal and the Hyde Act, to which the government has responded. These notes would come up for discussion at the second meeting of the Left-UPA panel here on Wednesday.