And in UPA, CPM says Rumsfeld & Pranab violated CMP

The Left’s role as the Opposition continues to gather steam. Hours after the CPM’s top leader, Prakash Karat, met UPA chairperson ...

The Left’s role as the Opposition continues to gather steam. Hours after the CPM’s top leader, Prakash Karat, met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to find a way out of the present impasse over the 10 per cent sell-off in BHEL—both sides have agreed to disagree—the CPM slammed the Indo-US defence agreement signed earlier this week.

And just as it had done when it had opposed the disinvestment policy, the CPM insisted that the Indo-US agreement was a violation of the CMP which made no mention of a defence deal of this nature with Washington. Yesterday, the CPI had said that it would lead to an arms race and today the CPM claimed that the agreement was ‘‘fraught with serious consequences.’’

Arguing that it would harm the country’s strategic and security interests, the CPM felt that the agreement signed during Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s visit would only help serve US strategy goals in Asia.

Story continues below this ad

The party objected to the fact that the agreement made India appear almost like one of the US traditional allies like Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. The party said, ‘‘The UPA government has taken this step without any public debate and discussions within the country.’’

Earlier, on the BHEL issue, though the Left stuck to its position, there was a nuanced change.

Senior Left leaders inserted the word ‘‘hopeful’’ as they described their meeting with Sonia. Sonia is said to have argued that the need to disinvest 10 per cent BHEL shares was to fund welfare schemes to honour commitments in the CMP.

Trump announces TikTok deal, surprise China visit ‘early next year’ after call with Xi

World13 hr ago

Trump and Xi had a successful phone call, addressing trade, Fentanyl, and TikTok. They plan to meet at APEC Summit and for Trump to visit China, with Xi visiting the US. Congress wants TikTok to sell its US assets or shut down, but Trump has not enforced this due to the app's value and progress.

View all shorts

Live Blog