Press Statement

 The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

 Manmohan Singh Government Stands Exposed

The Chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, Howard L. Berman, has made public the correspondence between the US State Department and members of the US Congress on the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement. The US Congressmen had asked 45 questions to the Bush Administration seeking clarifications on various aspects of the agreement. The answers provided by the Bush administration was kept secret so far because it would have completely exposed the false claims being made by the Manmohan Singh Government before the Indian public regarding the terms of the nuclear deal. The 26-page letter made public yesterday reveals:

 i. The US has given no binding fuel-supply assurance to India.

 ii. There is no US consent to India’s stockpiling of lifetime fuel reserves for safeguarded power reactors.

 iii. Civil nuclear cooperation is explicitly conditioned to India not testing ever again.

 iv. The US has retained the right to suspend or terminate supplies at its own discretion.

 v. The letter makes clear that the 123 Agreement has granted India no right to take corrective measures in case of any fuel-supply disruption.

 vi. The Bush administration’s letter states that the 123 Agreement fully conforms to the Hyde Act provisions.

 vii. The letter assures Congress that the US government will not assist India in the design, construction or operation of sensitive nuclear technologies, including enrichment and reprocessing.

 The Left Parties had warned the UPA Government about these provisions in the notes submitted to the UPA-Left Coordination Committee, which have now been vindicated by this disclosure. Each of the commitments made by the Prime Minister in Parliament have been violated.

 The Manmohan Singh Government stands thoroughly exposed before the country for compromising India’s vital security interests. Proceeding with this deal will mortgage India’s sovereignty and make India’s civilian nuclear programme vulnerable to US blackmail for the next forty years.

 CPI (M) demands that the UPA Government suspend all further moves to operationalise the anti-national nuclear deal.