Left seeks PM's reply on ship

NEW DELHI: Apprehensive that the purchase of USS Trenton was another deal struck under American pressure, the Left on Monday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to clarify if there was a restraining clause barring its use in case of a war.

Raising the issue during zero hour in both Houses of Parliament, CPM and CPI cited the censure of the Indian Navy by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for buying the 36-year-old US navy ship. The Left parties demanded a probe into the purchase.

CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta, who took up the matter in the Lok Sabha, said: ���Defence requirements of the country have been undermined by the purchase.���

Quoting the CAG report, Mr Dasgupta said the warship, which was to be abandoned by the US Navy in 2006, was bought for over $50 million without any physical assessment. He said $ 36.94 million was spent on repairing the ship and that the entire deal raised ���very serious' questions and the CAG had severely indicted the purchase.

CPM's Basudeb Acharia said the prime minister should make a statement in the House addressing the concerns raised by the CAG report. His party colleague Tapan Sen raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha and wanted to know from the government if India had accepted restrictions on offensive deployment of the warship.

The Left, which has been opposing ���growing strategic ties' between India and the US, asked whether New Delhi had given permission to the United States defence force to conduct an inspection and inventory of all articles transferred under the end-use monitoring clause.