Signing of Indo-US nuclear deal worst moment for country: Left

NEW DELHI: Taking on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for describing the signing of the Indo-US nuclear deal as one of the best moments of his 10-year tenure, CPI(M) today said it was perhaps the "worst" moment for the country.

"As far as the country is concerned, that was perhaps the worst moment. Nothing tangible has been achieved, not a single unit of nuclear power has been added as yet. But as a result of it, India's foreign policy has been dovetailed to the US," senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told PTI.

Yechury said, "The victims of this dovetailing has been the India-Iran gas pipeline, deterioration of relations with other developing countries on issues like agriculture and climate change, as these countries feel their interests have been compromised with India becoming a subordinate ally of the US."

Also, "whatever progressive legislations have been enacted by the UPA -- whether it was the RTI or on issues like rights to education and employment or the rights of tribals, were done due to the push by the Left parties," Yechury said, adding that these measures were adopted and implemented by the UPA-I "however reluctantly or inadequately".

The Prime Minister had yesterday described the signing of the nuclear deal with the US as one of his best moments in last 10 years of Prime Ministership.

CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy also said Singh's statements yesterday that the next Prime Minister would be from the UPA was wrong as "neither Narendra Modi's BJP nor Manmohan's UPA-III will come to power" in the next elections.

Reddy, while speaking to CPI journals like New Age, said he strongly believed that only a secular democratic alternative that would come to power in 2014 elections.

Congress misrule had messed up the economy with unabated price-rise, unemployment, closure of industries. It has allowed corporate houses to loot the country. Singh's tenure has been also marked by "political corruption bringing misery to people and the nation."

"They are worth only to be thrown out. BJP is not only the other side of the coin with same economic policies like Congress, but with the addition of dirty communalism, trying to divide the nation on religious lines and spreading hatred among the people of different religions," Reddy said.

"By inviting former corrupt Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa back into its fold, BJP has only lost its moral right about fighting against corruption," he said.