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CPM to review 123 Indo-US nuclear agreement

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, March 16, IRNA -- The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) Monday said that the Indo-US nuclear deal would be 'reviewed and reworked' and scrap the strategic alliance with US, including the Defense Framework Agreement.

Releasing the party's election manifesto here, the CPI(M), spearheading the 'Third Front', has said if it came to power, it would also amend the Constitution to make legislative sanction mandatory for any international treaty.

"We will review and rework this dubious (123 Indo-US) Agreement and remove harmful clauses in it," said CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat, terming the signing of the nuclear deal as the 'biggest betrayal' by the UPA as the issue was not mentioned in its Common Minimum Program (CMP).

The CPI(M) leader said there were provisions in the 123 Agreement which provided India with possibilities to renegotiate it.

"We will scrap the strategic alliance with the US. The fulcrum of the deal is the 10-year Defense Framework Agreement. This is what the US wants most. The first step that will follow will be its scrapping," he said.

Criticizing the 'neo-liberal' economic policies of the UPA, Karat said CPI(M) would increase annual plan expenditure to ten per cent of India's GDP, halt further tax concessions to corporates, launch drive to unearth black money, especially those stashed in Swiss banks and other off-shore tax havens.

Even European Union finance ministers have asked the banks to break secrecy laws, he said and asked whether the UPA government would give Swiss authorities a list of tax evaders and seek their account details.

Maintaining that the Left did not allow the UPA to privatize insurance sector, he said, "(US firm) AIG's fate would have been the fate of our insurance firms had we gone for such policies. The savings of lakhs of employees would have gone up in smoke had we allowed investing pension funds in the stock market."

The manifesto also spoke of building close ties with West Asian countries and pursue for Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline resisting US pressure.

Extending support to the Palestinian cause and severing military and security ties with Israel.

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End News / IRNA / News Code 401522