The Congress-led coalition virtually came under siege on Monday in Parliament over the Iran issue, with Left parties and the Opposition accusing it of 'bending' to US pressure, a charge rejected by the government.
Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha saw a spirited attack from Left parties, Samajwadi Party and allies like Rashtriya Janata Dal, besides the National Democratic Alliance. The government, however, maintained that India's vote against Iran at the recent International Atomic Energy Agency meeting was in the 'enlightened national interest'.
The SP, which is providing outside support to the government, even threatened to move a no-confidence motion if the government votes against Iran at the IAEA meeting on March 6.
Rejecting the charge of bowing to US pressure, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in the Lok Sabha that New Delhi's decision was taken 'independently' keeping in view the need for broad consensus. He said the Iran issue needed to be dealt with 'calm, patience and reasoned diplomacy'.
"Iran has always failed to appreciate India's concerns on Kashmir and has voted against the country at Organisation of Islamic Conference meetings on the plea of violation of human rights. But this did not spoil our relations," Kapil Sibal said.
On the March 6 meeting of IAEA on the issue, Sibal said the government would 'take a decision in the larger enlightened interest of the country'.
Mukherjee emphatically stated that India will have 'credible deterrent' as a nuclear weapon state while not giving up the path of non-proliferation. He said India has no intention of signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. "It is a fraud treaty and discriminatory," he added.
C K Chandrappan of the Communist Party of India said in the Lok Sabha that India has 'betrayed a country which has stood by it like a rock'. Terming India's vote in IAEA as a 'shameful episode', he hoped this would be put behind when the issue comes up on March 6 and it would abstain.
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said India's vote against Iran had raised a question on New Delhi's independent foreign policy and suggested a national consensus on the matter. He said the country's enlightened national interests needed a serious rethink.
BJP's deputy leader in Rajya Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, said her party was dead against Iran becoming a nuclear state but this objective should not be achieved to serve US interests. She wondered why Prime Minister Manmohan Singh failed to name Pakistan, which supplied centrifuges to Iran for its nuclear programme.
Complete coverage: The Iran vote
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