Singh writes a condolence message after paying tribute to CPI leader P.K. Vasudevan Nair in New Delhi on Wednesday. The 79-year-old former Kerala chief minister died of multiple organ failure at AIIMS on Tuesday. (PTI)

New Delhi, July 13: Ahead of Manmohan Singh’s five-day visit to the US, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat has asked the Prime Minister to be cautious while dealing with the Americans.

In an article in the forthcoming issue of his party’s mouthpiece, People’s Democracy, Karat advised against India becoming a “junior partner of the US in Asia” for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

The proposed pension fund bill that the Left parties are trying to scuttle and the UPA government is trying to push through in Parliament was also on Karat’s mind.

The CPM general secretary asked the Prime Minister to find out from President George W. Bush why he could not push through privatisation of social security funds in the US.

Karat said Bush had proposed to privatise the American social security fund, to which US citizens contribute, and put the money in the stock market. But “the proposal has met with widespread opposition and the President has been forced to backtrack”.

The Prime Minister should find out about the “fate of social security reforms that Bush wanted to push through”, he wrote.

In India, too, the government has proposed to privatise the employees’ pension fund and invest in the stock market.

“The people of India, who consider pension a social security benefit, oppose what the American people oppose ? the privatisation of the social security fund,” Karat asserted.

The CPM leader cautioned the Prime Minister on the “deleterious impact of US unilateralism on the UN”, saying that enlisting Washington’s support for a UN Security Council seat would “detract” India’s credibility as an independent power.

“This is a clear attempt to inveigle India into granting more concessions and be amenable to becoming a junior partner of the US in Asia.”

He observed that though Delhi was “keen to enlist” US support for a seat in the UN, Washington had so far “only declared support for Japan’s membership in the council. It has recently indicated that it may support one or two more countries”.

On the US’s reported objection to the India-Iran-Pakistan collaboration on a gas pipeline project, Karat said Singh should “convey in clear terms the country’s determination to pursue the project”.

“The US should be told that it cannot hamper India’s quest for energy security,” he said.

“Giving in to the US on such vital issues will be counterproductive and will actually detract from India’s credibility as an independent power which necessitates its representation in the Security Council.”

Unfortunately, India has already sent a signal to go along with the US by signing the framework of an Indo-US defence relationship, the CPM general secretary said.