Manmohan Singh addresses a luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington. (Reuters)

New Delhi, July 21: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says the agreement with the US during his current trip will not compromise India’s interests. But the Left isn’t convinced.

The CPM and CPI see a “pro-US shift” in the joint statement signed by Singh and President George Bush on a strategic partnership between the two countries. They are annoyed that such a vital issue had been decided without discussion within the ruling alliance or with the Left.

The Left parties today warned Singh’s government against taking up unilateral measures that may compromise national interests.

The CPM felt the joint statement “marks an end” of India’s nuclear disarmament policy and wondered what Washington might have received in return for offering civilian nuclear cooperation to Delhi.

“The government should clarify whether there has been an understanding reached about buying US defence equipment to the tune of billions of dollars,” the party demanded. “India continues to give more concessions compared to what the US has to offer.”

It is to ally such fears that the Prime Minister had insisted yesterday that all obligations had been taken “fully on the basis of reciprocity”. He had claimed that “only when some steps are taken by the US to our satisfaction that we will take the steps (we have to take). It is certainly not true that this is one-sided”.

But the CPI cited how Washington had neither supported India’s demand for a Security Council seat nor recognised it as a nuclear weapons power as distinct from a state with advanced nuclear technology.

In return for these ambiguous and limited assurances, India has agreed to continue its unilateral moratorium on nuclear tests, separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities and open its civilian facilities for international inspection, the party said.

“The separation between civilian and strategic nuclear facilities will be a national decision,” Singh had said. “It will be taken on the basis of our security concerns? (and) will protect our autonomy in matters relating to (our) strategic concerns.”

The CPM is also sceptical about “the announcement of US-India Global Democracy Initiative to strengthen democracy in third countries”.

Such a bilateral initiative “displays the anxiety of India to align with the US at a time when the superpower has become notorious for its unilateralist and anti-democratic activities”.