Ranchi/Calcutta, Sept. 24: Prakash Karat is speaking Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s language on nuclear energy in the run-up to the Calcutta politburo meeting but with an unequivocal statement that the US deal is not acceptable.

“We want nuclear power. Already our country has developed nuclear technology and power. Our argument is that this agreement with the US will harm our self-reliant nuclear development,” the CPM general secretary said in Ranchi today.

Karat, on a tour to highlight what he sees as the dangers of the nuclear deal, may have been addressing reports of divisions within the CPM after the Bengal chief minister recently spoke in favour of nuclear energy.

Asked about the future of Left-UPA relations, Karat said the communists would keep “dribbling with the football” for now. “We have not yet decided when to send it to the goalpost.”

In Calcutta, too, the CPM denied any rift between its Bengal leaders and Karat.

Jyoti Basu’s and Bhattacharjee’s backing of nuclear power and US investment should not be seen as support for the nuclear deal, Mohammad Salim said.

Fellow central committee member Nilotpal Basu said: “Our party is not against nuclear power per se. We just want to stress that nuclear power constitutes only a small component of our energy security. We don’t want the government to operationalise the deal.”

Karat said the Left’s opposition to the deal was not a sudden development. “We had warned the central government not to engage in bilateral negotiations soon after the US passed the Hyde Act in 2006.”

The Hyde Act is a US domestic law that lays down conditions under which nuclear co-operation with India should stop, such as a nuclear test.

Karat said the deal was not a matter for experts to comment on. “The deal compromised our independent foreign policy, so vigorously pursued by Jawaharlal Nehru through the non-aligned policy. But the Congress has forgotten Nehru to buttress US interests.”

The CPM leader said the government should wait for a full-fledged discussion on the deal in Parliament. “Do not operationalise the deal for at least six months. The government should wait for the outcome of a debate in Parliament before taking any decision,” Karat said.