Sitaram Yechury: The Congress party had recently asked the allies to follow the coalition dharma and not cross the Lakshman Rekha. The CPI(M) is clear that the only Lakshman Rekha for this government is the Common Minimum Programme. Now the way foreign policy is being presently implemented is a violation of the CMP, and the government is aware of the repercussions of crossing over the Lakshman Rekha. Now if the government insists that it wants to carry on like it has done on the Iran issue, then it should also know that if it wants to go to that level then we would also see in the coming days on what to do
Nagendar Sharma: Is the foreign policy turning out to be the main point of tension in relations between the UPA government and Left parties?
Sitaram Yechury: On the foreign policy and especially on the present issue of voting against Iran , I would not say tension, but yes there are a lot problems between the government and Left. What we are saying and the Common Minimum Programme also says is that an independent foreign policy would be pursued. Independent means on the basis of unity among developing countries, and also taking along the friends of original Non Aligned Movement (NAM), all nations would oppose attempts by any single nation to impose its hegemony and designs of ruling the world by force. So this is what we want, but what has actually happened on the Iran issue makes it clear that the foreign policy is not headed in the right direction. It seems that the tilt towards America is consistently increasing. We have been opposed to this and we would continue to do so.
Nagendar Sharma: As is clearly evident from the government’s decision to vote against Iran twice at the IAEA, does it mean that political parties have no role left in foreign policy now?
Sitaram Yechury: This is a serious situation. Our understanding is that in the present circumstances, time has come for amending the Constitution to make it obligatory for the government to seek the approval of Parliament before taking a key foreign policy decision and the signing of international treaties, which is not required presently. This has been necessitated as in the recent past, important international treaties have been signed bypassing the Parliament and important foreign policy decisions have been taken ignoring the opinion of the Parliament.
Nagendar Sharma: Mr Ansari, how is it possible that a government decides to bypass the concerns of parties on whose support it depends for survival? Why is politics dominant over diplomacy ?
Hamid Ansari: The entire issue is a very complex one and would have to be seen carefully. First of all, the wording of resolution passed in Vienna over the weekend would have to be observed. As Indian government has said, in its view, in the given circumstances, it was balanced and has taken the concerns of all sides involved into consideration. However, interestingly the resolution was rejected first of all by Israel even before Iran , as it said that entire West Asia must be made a nuclear free zone. Israel rejected despite not having been named directly, as there was an indirect mention and that too after the insistence of Arab nations, America was forced to mention this point, but Israel firmly rejected it.
Secondly, the resolution says Iran must immediately stop all work on nuclear energy, including research work – meaning shut shop. Now this is surprising as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty clearly states that all signatories have a right to develop nuclear programme for peaceful purposes. So what happened to Iran ’s right? The NPT does not say you can snatch any nation’s right, on the contrary it says even if any nation is in violation of the treaty there is a procedure for dealing with it. Now this resolution wants Iran to stop all this, simply because they are saying we do not trust you. Trust could be very tricky, it is Iran today and could be any other nation tomorrow.
BBC listener from MP: Sir, why is the Indian government making its foreign policy subservient to the US in the name of national interest?
Hamid Ansari: I think we should not look at this in a hasty manner. Indian government tries to follow a policy especially with regards to foreign affairs which is in our national interests, and from my experience I can tell you decisions are independently taken. Now sometimes a government is confronted with a difficult scenario as the present one. Here you have a country which is clearly telling you which way you have to go and even more clearly telling you which way not to go. Such situations are not easy to handle.