The USS Nimitz

New Delhi, June 25: Blind to recent history, the CPM today suddenly woke up as if from a slumber and asked the Centre to explain why it was allowing America’s largest aircraft carrier into Indian shores.

The USS Nimitz, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is slated to berth in Chennai between July 2 and July 5, two years after it exercised with the navy in Indian waters off the coast of Goa.

“We would like to know what compulsions the government had in taking such a decision (granting permission to the Nimitz to dock),” CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said.

“The government should explain why it was allowed. We want to see what the government has to say. We will take up the issue after that.”

Defence minister A.K. Antony could come up with a response that is factual. “This has been happening for the last so many years. Defence cooperation is not only with the US but also with other countries. For the first time we will have exercises with China also this year. So, we are not particular about one country or the other. We want to expand our defence cooperation with various countries so that our armed forces can learn from the experience,” he said.

In the last four years, there has been an India-US military-to-military exchange almost every month. Apart from the Nimitz that engaged the Indian Navy in wargames in September 2005, another Nimitz-class carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, had a “Valentine’s Day tryst” with Indian vessels on February 14, 2005. The only reason that the USS Nimitz could not dock in Goa or Mumbai during the September 2005 Malabar exercise was that the ports did not have adequate berthing facilities for such a large vessel.

The Nimitz towers 20 storeys from the waterline and covers 4.5 acres. It is nearly three times the size of the Indian Navy’s flagship and largest vessel, the aircraft carrier INS Viraat.

Senior defence ministry officials are convinced that there is little more to tokenism in the position taken by the Left.

“Foreign naval warships have docked in Indian ports many times,” Antony said. “Not only American but also from the UK and France and Russia. Our ships also get similar facilities.”

The US today said the port call by Nimitz is a “landmark” event in India-US relations. “The first ever port call in India by a US aircraft carrier and a landmark event in US-India bilateral relations,” its embassy said in a release.