| The CPI M, which issued a statement today, charged the government with abandoning an "independent foreign policy" outlined in the Common Minimum Programme of the ruling alliance, which was backed by them. |
| The party also flayed the call for a regime change in countries like Iran, Cuba and Syria. It demanded that the government continue its "friendly relations" with countries on the basis of its independent foreign policy and not support American strategies. |
| The party, however, withheld judgement on the civilian nuclear deal until Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had spoken in the Parliament, indicating that it was ready to be persuaded about the merits of the deal. Party leader Prakash Karat had earlier told Business Standard he was not opposed to the transfer of high technology from the US to India. |
| The CPI M said it was against the "erosion of strategic autonomy". Claiming that the "sum total of the Bush visit has been to draw India closer into the strategic plans of the US in Asia", it said "acceptance of this deal would entail loss of economic sovereignty and have adverse consequences on domestic industry and agriculture". |
| "The implications of a strategic partnership with the US are unfolding in the manner in which the government has accommodated US concerns on Iran, endorsed the spreading of its version of democracy, re-interpreted the energy policy by placing undue reliance on nuclear energy and most dangerously tying up India as a military ally of the US," it said. |
| While the "knowledge initiative on agriculture" would facilitate US multinationals like Monsanto in setting the Indian agriculture research agenda, the "International Centre for Democratic Transition" was nothing but a US-sponsored platform to advance its hegemonic aims, CPI M said. |
| In a separate statement, the CPI central secretariat asked the UPA government to take the Parliament and people into confidence and place all the proposed agreements before the Parliament. |
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