INDIA:INDIA'S COMMUNIST MPs have ended more than four years of support to prime minister Manmohan Singh's ruling coalition after months of wrangling over its contentious civil nuclear deal with the US, reducing it to a minority in parliament.
After the high drama that has long hobbled the federal government's functioning, Dr Singh yesterday claimed to have the necessary support of the Samajwadi or Socialist Party and other smaller groupings to help it remain in power in the 545-member parliament.
"The left parties pulling out will not affect the stability of the government," Dr Singh said in Japan where he is attending the G8 summit. Today he meets US president George Bush to confirm the nuclear deal the two agreed three years ago.
Earlier, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) chief Prakash Karat, announced the pull-out of all 59 MPs from four left parties fearful that the nuclear deal could expose Indian foreign policy to US influence.
"We are against the strategic embrace and the hegemonic ambitions of the world's biggest imperial power," Mr Karat said.
The government, however, is convinced that the atomic deal which allows India to engage in civil nuclear commerce while retaining its strategic weapons but remaining outside the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, was essential in meeting its soaring energy requirements.
It also claims there was nothing in the agreement with the US that would proscribe future Indian nuclear tests, hobble its strategic deterrence or be dictated to by Washington with regard to its foreign policy.
Once ratified, the agreement with Washington would end India's nuclear apartheid, reversing over three decades of US policy imposed after Delhi's first atomic test in 1974. The deal now needs approval by the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, which regulates global civilian nuclear trade.
Thereafter it has to be presented to the US Congress for final approval after which India can execute nuclear commerce globally but after placing 14 of its 22 atomic installations and facilities under IAEA inspection.
Critics of the agreement say that with US elections in November, time is running short to ratify the agreement before a new US administration assumes power.
The move by the left was triggered by an adamant Dr Singh stating he would submit an application to the IAEA on July 28th when the India-specific measures would be discussed.
Mr Karat said Communist leaders who had sustained the government from the outside since 2004, would meet Indian president Pratibha Patil today formally to inform her of ending their support to Dr Singh's administration.
Thereafter Dr Singh's Congress Party-led coalition could be tested in parliament later this month to prove its majority to avoid general elections before they are due in May 2009.
Dr Singh is anxious to delay elections, as party insiders fear they could stimulate political and economic uncertainty as inflation was at a 13-year high of nearly 12 per cent and international oil prices spiralling.