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This is an archive article published on September 4, 2011

WikiLeaks: Yechury took another line on Iran pipeline

The CPIM has always showcased the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline as an example of the UPA government succumbing to US pressure. But leaked US cables show that senior leader Sitaram Yechury took a different line privately.

The CPIM has always showcased the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline as an example of the UPA government succumbing to US pressure. But leaked US cables show that senior leader Sitaram Yechury took a different line privately.

Yechury told Ted Osius,political counselor at the US Embassy on May 17,2007,that while India must judge the Iran pipeline project on its merit,anti-American rhetoric was not good for India because we might be compelled to react and not make the right decision. The Left-UPA alliance was intact in 2007.

The Osius-Yechury meeting took place days after Parliament was disrupted over a letter written by some US Congressmen to PM Manmohan Singh demanding that India terminate cooperation with Iran. The CPIM had dubbed it as the latest instance of US pressure to abide by its conditions for concluding the nuclear agreement.

The cable read: Yechury characterised the letter8230; as simply providing more fodder for BJP and Left attacks on the UPA government. Yechury agreed that the over-inflated nationalist posturing did a disservice to the issue and subordinated it to politics.

The cable concluded that Yechury leads the CPIMs moderate wing,which stands opposed to the more doctrinaire policies of General Secretary Prakash Karat. It added: The best of a bad lot,Yechury is an intelligent interlocutor who can potentially help us curb the Communists worst tendencies.

 

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