Communists formally withdraw support for Indian government (Roundup)

Jul 9, 2008, 13:20 GMT

New Delhi - Communist allies of India's United Progressive Alliance Wednesday formally withdrew support for the government over a nuclear deal with the United States and demanded a confidence vote in parliament.

Leaders of the four left-wing parties that have provided the Congress-party led UPA with a parliamentary majority since May 2004 met President Pratibha Patil to hand over letters of withdrawal.

'We have met the president and all four of our left parties have submitted letters withdrawing support from the UPA government,' Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), told reporters after the meeting.

'We have also submitted a second letter requesting the president convene a session of the Lok Sabha (lower house) and direct the prime minister to seek a vote of confidence immediately,' he added.

The parties announced their decision on Tuesday soon after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the government would seek International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards to implement the nuclear agreement.

'As you are aware the left parties had warned that they would withdraw support if the UPA took the next step to operationalize the nuclear deal,' an angry Karat said.

Karat said the UPA had plunged the country into a political crisis when people were suffering with record inflation.

'We cannot be a party to a government which is callous to the sufferings of people and whose priority is to fulfill its commitment to US president George Bush and not to the people of India,' he said.

The communists say the nuclear deal would compromise India's strategic sovereignty and make it a 'stooge of US imperialism.'

The leftist group includes the CPI-M, Communist Party of India (CPI), Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Forward Bloc, which have a total of 59 members in the 543-seat lower house.

The Congress party claims the ruling coalition can still muster enough seats for a majority in parliament in case a no-confidence motion is called.

The UPA government, whose five-year term ends in May 2009, has ruled out early elections, saying it has the support of the Samajwadi (Socialist) Party that has 39 members as well as other smaller political parties.

After the communist parties withdrew support, the SP also met with President Patil and reiterated its backing for the UPA in a letter of support.

SP general secretary Amar Singh said a floor vote 'depends on the President's discretion and the Congress party's floor managers ... Our support is with the government and there is no question of the government falling.'

Under the civilian nuclear agreement, the US has promised to provide India access to civilian nuclear technology and nuclear fuel in exchange for international safeguards on India's nuclear reactors.

After reaching a safeguards agreement with the UN, New Delhi has to lobby for an India-specific waiver with the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group and later send the agreement for final ratification by the US Congress.