Karat puts N-pact, BHEL back on radar

Said Karat: ‘‘We have reservations over some contents of the Indo-US agreement. The party will focus on what is harmful for our strategic and security interests, and will raise our objections in Parliament tomorrow.’’

On BHEL’s disinvestment, Karat said, ‘‘We refuse to accept the so-called compromise proposal of five per cent disinvestment in BHEL (in place of the current proposal for 10 per cent). It is not a question of percentage, our opposition to disinvestments in Navratna companies is a matter of principle.’’

Yesterday, senior Politburo member Sitaram Yechury had said that the party only voiced the same concerns on the nuclear pact as the Prime Minister himself, going by the Parliament statement. The PM had said India’s commitments would be conditional upon, and reciprocal to, the US fulfilling its side of the understanding.

Karat also expressed his misgivings on the implications the Washington deal had on the country’s atomic energy programme.

‘‘The Department of Atomic Energy should not be weakened while implementing the nuclear cooperation agreement on the basis of structured reciprocity,’’ he asserted, stressing upon the importance of maintaining India’s independence in developing nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Karat also asked the government to reconsider its decision to resume arms supply to Nepal and take a ‘‘firm stand’’ on restoration of democracy in the Himalayan Kingdom.

Table ’84 riots report: Yechury

LUDHIANA: Raising the heat on the Congress-led UPA government, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said here today that his party will demand that the Nanavati Commission report on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots be tabled in Parliament. ‘‘Anybody guilty should be punished and no guilty person should be shielded,’’ he said. —PTI