'Betray us on N-deal and pay political price'

After giving a go-ahead for negotiation with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the India-United States civil nuclear deal, the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Tuesday bluntly told the United Progressive Alliance government that it will have to pay a "political price" if it "betrays" the agreement reached with the Left parties on the issue.

CPI-M Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said the Left parties allowed the government to proceed with talks with the IAEA after an understanding that it will have to report back to the UPA-Left committee on the issue.

"The moment they defy or betray this understanding, they will have to pay the political price," Yechury told Karan Thapar's 'India Tonight' on CNBC. He said the government has assured not only to the Left, but the people of the country that it will get back to the UPA-Left panel after IAEA negotiations.

Asked whether the government decides to go ahead with inking the deal saying IAEA safeguards were in the interest of the nation. "By that time, the government will be off. Elections will be there. If the government's interest is not in seeing themselves in, then the government should necessarily go. If the deal is more important than being in government, let it go," Yechury said.

He said that although the Left has given the green signal to the government for talks with the IAEA, the CPI-M is sceptical about the outcome of the talks as objections raised by them cannot be addressed by the international body. Asked whether allowing talks with the IAEA was taken as a blanket go-ahead for the deal, he said, "Yes, absolutely correct."

Yechury said his party has no ideological predilections on the issue of the nuclear deal. "Remove the Hyde Act, and remove the conditions of the Hyde Act. In that it is not our ideological predilection, but of the US. We are not opposed to the US, but we are opposed to American imperialism," he said.

He said the presumption that the Hyde Act applies only to the US was incorrect as the deal was anchored on this legislation. Yechury said the Left was persuading the government not to go ahead with the deal. "We raised our objections and the government requested that they be allowed to raise the matter with the IAEA and check whether we will be able to get it. Therefore, we gave the go-ahead but said that before initializing, they must come back to us," he said.