No sati, no divorce; CPI now says it just wants 9 answers

STRAIGHT TALK: AB Bardhan says CPI is neither interested in toppling UPA Govt, nor in early polls.

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Keywords: Political Mechanism, Nine Points

New Delhi: The CPI on Tuesday further softened its stand on the nuke deal, saying it is not for destabilising the government. The party, however, asked for clarification on at least nine points to ensure that the nation does not become an 'appendage of the US strategic alliance'.

A day after the Government and the Left parties reached an agreement to set up a 'political mechanism' to go into the Indo-US nuclear nuclear deal, CPI made it absolutely clear that it has no intention of destabilising the government and force an immediate election.

The party, however, insisted that its concerns on the deal would have to be addressed by the ruling coalition by a mechanism, like a committee at the political level, by clarifing all doubts on the 123 Agreement and allied matters like the Hyde Act.

General Secretary AB Bardhan, in fact, listed out all the points of contention at a press conference at the end of day-long national executive meeting of the party.

"Clarifications are needed on the pact's impact on the Hyde Act, the nature of safeguards and the impact on our nuclear energry requirements and the annual certification and reporting to the US Congress by the President on a variety of foreign policy issues, including India's foreign policy being congruent to that of the US," Bardhan said.

The CPI leader also said that the proposed mechanism would also have to deal with questions like the impact of the pact on the nature of safeguards India sought with the International Atomic Energy Agency or the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

"We have taken the democratic path of telling the government about our concerns and criticisms and asked it not to operationalise the agreement before our objections are cleared," Bardhan said.

The press conference saw a mellowed Bardhan in contrast to his aggressive posture in the last few days when he told the government that it would be committing 'sati' if it operationalised the 123 Agreement.