After four days of “studying” the text of the 123 agreement in the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Left parties today rejected it, emphasizing more on its context than on the content of its text. Calling for a Constitutional amendment that would bring international treaties and “certain” bilateral agreements to Parliament for approval, the Left today underlined the growing Indo-US strategic relationship as its key reason for opposing the 123 agreement.

Said CPM general secretary Prakash Karat: “The Left parties have consistently held that the nuclear cooperation agreement should not be seen in isolation from the overall strategic tie-up with the United States.” So the Left’s five-page statement largely revolves around the broader Indo-US relationship — what it calls the “US quest to make India its reliable ally in Asia.”

This is a clear departure from the Left’s earlier criticism that the United States is shifting the goalposts as far as the July 18, 2005 statement of the Prime Minister is concerned. The Prime Minister had assured the Left that all assurances he made to the House would be honoured in the 123 agreement. In fact, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury, after the PM’s speech in Parliament on August 17, 2006, had said: “The Prime Minister has accepted what we had said on the Indo-US nuclear deal. On each of our concerns, there were categorical assurances.”

Congress leaders said that on August 13, the PM will go back to Parliament to recollect the dozen points he had made last year and match them with the draft 123 agreement to show that it was in sync with the assurances he had given the House. The message to the Left would be: “Do you trust your PM or your ideology to protect the country’s interest?” The ruling combine would then leave it to the Left to answer this question with the nation as an audience, said a highly placed government source.

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