In the latest issue of CPM organ People’s Democracy, General Secretary Prakash Karat argues that the nuclear deal signifies the lining up of India behind the US global strategy and warns that the plight Pakistan finds itself in today is an intimation of the perils of a strategic embrace of the imperialist superpower. He says the Manmohan Singh government has taken a major step to convert India into a strategic ally of the US, which will further erode the independent foreign policy and open the doors for relentless American pressure on issues affecting India’s vital interests, whether it be in the fields of energy, defence or economic policies.

At the same time, he claims that the 123 agreement, as defined by President George W. Bush, has exploded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s oft-repeated assertion that India will settle for nothing short of full civilian nuclear cooperation — “Bush has made it clear that there is no assurance of uninterrupted fuel supply nor is there any question of transfer of reprocessing and enrichment technology to India.” The report submitted by Bush to the US Congress approvingly states that India has cooperated with the US on the Iran nuclear issue in the IAEA and the UN, he notes. Already, he says, the Pentagon considers India a strategic ally and the US Commission on Review of Overseas Military Facilities Structure lists New Delhi among developing “cooperative security locations” — a category of US military bases. The steps to ensure “inter-operability” of the two armed forces are proceeding apace, he adds. “It is this interlocking of India with the US’s global and military strategy which is being hailed by the pro-American sections of the ruling establishment and the corporate media ...they are not only oblivious to the dangers posed to India’s sovereignty and strategic autonomy but seem to be craving to replace Pakistan as the reliable subordinate ally in South Asia,” he observes.

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