Monday, April 17 2006 19:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The CPI(M) today (Apr 17, 2006) rejected Congress President Sonia Gandhi's charge that Left parties were communalizing India's foreign policy in the wake of their stand on Iran nuclear issue and said levelling the allegation was 'failure' to justify the Centre's 'pro-US' orientation.

To a question about critics saying the Left was communalising the foreign policy, CPI(M)general secretary Prakash Karat said there was nothing wrong in Muslims being concerned.

"In fact, worldwide the Muslims are concerned about how the Bush administration is acting. When you have the President of the US to tell 'God has asked me to go and end terror in Afghanistan, end tyranny in Iraq' and now he is targeting Iran, and then Syria. The Muslim world feels under siege."

"So, I think it is natural for worldwide Muslims to feel apprehensive of the US policies. To call that communalization of Indian foreign policy is to acknowledge or fail to justify your pro-US orientation", Karat told sources.

Asked whether the UPA had broken the national consensus which dictates the foreign policy, he replied in the affirmative but said it began during the Vajpayee government.

"And now the UPA government, which has no majority in Parliament, is trying to reset the parameters of the Indian foreign policy.

"There is no consensus. That is the most objectionable thing. We will have to look at this whole thing. To have a government depending on the Left to become a US ally is something we cannot conceive of," Karat said.