Sitaram Yechury wants India-US defence pact contents to be made public

VIJAYAWADA: Terming the recent defence cooperation agreement signed between India and the US as "dangerous", CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury today demanded that the Centre immediately make its contents public and take the opinion of Parliament before going further on it.

"Recently India signed another defence agreement with the US. This, in our opinion, is a very dangerous pact because what was the content of the earlier logistics agreement was also unknown to us. And even this deal, we do not know what it contains," Yechury told reporters here this afternoon.

He was in Vijayawada to inaugurate the Makineni Basavapunnaiah Knowledge Centre established by the Andhra Pradesh CPI(M) unit.

"But what the US has announced is that India is a defence partner of USA, which means now we are as good as the members of the NATO. And we will be completely cooperating with all the military adventures that USA and its imperialism will undertake in the world," Yechury alleged.

"If there is another attack like the Iraq attack, India will be part of that attack with our soldiers participating and providing all assistance to USA," he claimed, adding "this is dangerous and against the time-tested and accepted foreign policy positions and independent position of India so far."

"So, this is something we want immediately the government to make public and at least to Parliament what is the content of the agreement. Take the opinion of Parliament before going further," the Rajya Sabha member demanded.