Debate Indo-US N-deal in current session: CPI(M)

The CPI(M) on Sunday demanded a discussion on Indo-US nuclear deal in the current session of Parliament and asked the government to consult the main opposition BJP on an issue of vital national importance.

Parliament should take up the nuclear agreement for debate in the ongoing monsoon session itself as it would be no use discussing the matter after the US Congress adopts the relevant law, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat told reporters at the conclusion of the two-day meeting of the party Polit Bureau in New Delhi.

Parliament has the sovereign right to discuss the agreement if the US Congress can do so clause by clause, he said.

As to how the 'sense of the House' would be expressed on the deal, Karat said "we are in touch with the government representatives in the Parliament and working on how this can be done. We are talking to the government as well as the Congress party".

Asked whether they would consult the main Opposition BJP, Karat said it has to be done by the government which should agree on a procedure to consult all parties, including the main Opposition, as "this is not a matter of a single party but of vital national importance".

"Though we were totally opposed to the BJP's pro-US policies when they were in office, we had then spoken to the BJP leadership on having a resolution in Parliament against sending troops to Iraq", Karat said.

Maintaining that there were nine areas in which new conditionalities were added to the deal by the US House of Representatives and various House Committees, he said it was, therefore, imperative that "the parameters on which the agreement should be based is discussed in Parliament".