Nuclear deal with US led to strategic ties that put India in 'bind' today, says CPI(M) leader Prakash Kara

Prakash Karat said on Thursday, as he called for improving relations with China as a balancing factor.
In an interview with PTI, Karat, the Interim Coordinator of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said India does not need to be allies with China, but improving relations with the northern neighbour will help India's position in a multipolar world.
Amid ongoing tariff dispute with the US, he said in 2008, when the Left parties withdrew support from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government over the Indo-US Civil Nuclear deal, the move was seen only in context to the deal. However, over the years, it led to strategic relations developing in a way that today the Trump administration is trying to «extract» deals from India.
Karat, who served as the general secretary of the party from 2005-2015, was at the helm when the CPI(M)'s withdrawal of support from the UPA government led to the alliance government facing a strength test in Parliament, which it survived though with the backing of the Samajwadi Party.
«People saw our opposition to the India-US nuclear deal only within the framework of that civil nuclear deal. We saw it in a wider perspective because the real thing was America was saying we will give you this nuclear deal, we will remove all those earlier restrictions and prohibitions which were there… But the quid pro quo was that you come into a military and defence agreement with us, which we entered into — the ten year military framework agreement,» Karat told PTI.

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«The Indo-US Nuclear Deal was the sort of cementing factor for that. That is one of the major reasons for our objection… In the last 15-20 years we have seen we have entered into a much deeper strategic alliance (with the US).