Left slams Singh-Bush bravado

New Delhi: Communist leaders on Wednesday called on President Pratibha Patil to formally end their four years of shaky support to the Congress-led coalition, saying the nuclear deal with the United States would never provide energy security but instead harm the country's independent foreign policy and strategic autonomy.

As expected, the Samajwadi Party promptly stepped in, submitting to the president a list of 39 MPs elected on the party ticket in 2004 and claimed an independent MP's support to make up for the shortfall of 59 MPs the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) suffered after the four Left parties pulled out.

And as Congress leaders got into the act of shoring up enough support for the UPA in the 545-seat Lok Sabha, a confident Manmohan Singh and US President George W. Bush shook hands on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Japan and voiced their backing for the nuclear deal.

After meeting for about 45 minutes at Hotel Windsor Toya, overlooking the scenic Lake Toya, Bush said: "We talked about the nuclear deal and how important it is for our respective countries."

The highlight of the day was an unprecedented no-holds-barred attack that Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) general secretary Prakash Karat launched on the government and the prime minister after he along with leaders of the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) met Patil around noon and demanded that the government prove its majority in parliament.

Karat and the other leaders told Patil that, minus the Left, "the government has lost its majority and legitimacy. The prime minister must face the Lok Sabha and seek a vote of confidence".

Accusing Manmohan Singh of giving priority to Bush over the Indian people, Karat told reporters at the CPM headquarters that the government was not transparent over the "notorious nuclear deal" and accused it of lying for saying that the India-specific safeguards pact to be signed with IAEA was a classified document.

"We would like to know who has declared this a classified document? Is this the UPA government decision or (that of) the secretariat of the IAEA? This is the text (that) is going to bind us in perpetuity; our nuclear reactors will be placed under safeguards in perpetuity. And that text is being hidden from the people of this country.

Right-wing shift alleged

"The struggle against the nuclear deal is not over. This struggle will continue. I am confident this deal will not be finalised," he said.

In a joint statement, the four Left parties said the nuclear deal would not provide energy security but instead "hamper an independent foreign policy and restrict our strategic autonomy".

"The Congress is determined to go ahead with a further right-wing shift in both foreign and domestic policies," it added.

The Congress however sounded confident of winning a floor test. "We are sure we can prove [our] majority in the Lok Sabha. We are working on it," said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi.

A meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's apex body, has been called for tomorrow - by when Manmohan Singh would have returned - to study the political situation.