Delivering a stern message on the Indo-US nuclear deal, Prakash Karat, general secretary, CPI(M), today said the time has come for the UPA leadership to "decide and tell people" whether it would abide by the commitment to the United States or to the Common Minimum Programme (CMP)."In the CMP adopted by the UPA, there was not a word about strategic alliance with America. If that was put in the CMP, the Left parties would not have supported the government," Karat said while addressing a public meeting here.Alleging that the government was deviating from the CMP and taking "step after step to get into strategic alliance with the USA," he said "this is not acceptable to Left parties."Without giving any indication on the Left's strategy in the event of the government going ahead with operationalising the deal, Karat said: "Whatever takes place in future, we will not compromise on the independent foreign policy and national interests."Warning that America would be able to "blackmail India for 40 years" once the nuclear agreement was operationalised, he said it was part of US President George Bush's agenda to pressure New Delhi to open its markets to American companies.
