Dump defence deal in dustbin: Karat

A day after Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee met Left leaders to offer clarifications on the framework of the Indo-US defence cooperation agreement, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said at a public meeting here that it should be "disposed in the dustbin."

Karat said the current framework finalised by Mukherjee during his Washington trip last month was detrimental to India's independent foreign policy stand since this "was a major step for harnessing India to secure US strategic and military interests".

Karat also criticised the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for forcing the already existing "minutes on defence cooperation" with the US to "a higher level of strategic alliance".

He said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief LK Advani, when he was the Home Minister, had expressed great satisfaction at the joint exercises conducted by the Indo-US armies. "Advani is the only Indian home minister to have visited the CIA headquarters," Karat said.

According to Karat, the present framework violates the stand taken by the government to maintain "multipolarity" as set out in the national common minimum programme. It opposes the framework on four counts. First the Left is opposed to the clause in the framework that sets out that Indian and the US will collaborate in "multinational" operations without UN ratification in cases where it is in the "mutual interest" of both countries.

Karat wanted to know if in effect the government would agree to the kind of "multinational" operation being conducted by the US in Iraq and if not what were the kind of operations that would come outside the purview of such "multinational cooperation".

Second, according to the Left, the US interest in allowing India access to its missile defence systems is solely to "interlock" India in the grid of its own strategic interest and is not driven by any other motive. "One should remember the US tried to stop India from developing its own missile defence systems," Karat said.

The third clause opposed by the Left parties concerns the "shared security interests in the free flow of commerce" as the framework sets it out and the fourth clause deals with the co-production of weaponry.

According to the Left it is unfortunate that the government does not realise that the US after signing defence treaties threaten its allies to cut of supplies if they do not go along with the US stand on issues.

Karat said US was interested in fashioning ties with India along the lines of its military ties with Japan or South Korea and said that this was the stated US intent.

He asked if an 'exploratory' visit by the Defence Minister had resulted n such a framework being agreed on what would happen during the 'substantive visit' of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the US later this week.