Left-wing parties storm out of Indian coalition

NEW DELHI: A bloc of Indian left-wing and communist parties announced Tuesday they were pulling out of the country's coalition government in protest against a nuclear energy deal with the United States.The decision, however, is not expected to cause the collapse of the Congress-led government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who last week managed to secure the support of a regional party.Top Marxist leader Prakash Karat told reporters that the "time has come" for the political left to bail out of the coalition in the wake of Singh's decision to push ahead with implementing the controversial nuclear energy deal."We have decided to ask the president for an appointment so that we can formally withdraw support tomorrow," Karat said.Singh and US President George W. Bush in 2005 unveiled the agreement to share civilian nuclear technology -- a deal that when finalised would see India entering the fold of global nuclear commerce after being shut out for decades.Singh argues the pact is crucial for India's energy security.But the four-member bloc of left-wing parties, who have 59 seats in the 545-member parliament, insist the deal would bind India too closely to the United States, and have threatened repeatedly to force early elections if it moves forward.They say the deal runs counter to India's status as a figurehead in the non-aligned movement.They also believe that allowing UN inspections of the country's civil nuclear programme -- as demanded by the Americans -- would harm India's strategic weapons programme.The White House warned Tuesday that time was running short to ratify a landmark US-India civilian nuclear agreement during Bush's term, which ends in January.Speaking on the eve of Bush's talks with Singh, spokeswoman Dana Perino said the US Congress had a heavy workload and "a limited number of legislative days."Perino brushed aside a question about whether Singh was expected to announce that he is ready to move ahead with the agreement, saying it was "premature to say" before the leaders met on the margins of a rich nation summit."But obviously we've maintained a strong commitment to carrying through on our side of the deal, and obviously India has had a lot of discussion among its political parties," she told reporters."It's been a long road, and there's been a healthy debate," Perino said."We'll have to see what he's able to bring on the India civil nuclear agreement," she said. "It could be that he's ready to move forward -- but it also could just as likely be that they have a little bit more work to do.""But we obviously recognise as well that we have a limited number of legislative days for our congress to get a lot of work done," said the spokeswoman.