January 31, 2006	Tuesday	Muharram 1, 1427

NEW DELHI, Jan 30: India’s left parties on Monday asked the government to demand the recall of US ambassador David Mulford for commenting on New Delhi’s stand on Iran’s nuclear programme and the country’s economic policy.

Mulford drew a sharp reaction from the government and opposition parties last week for saying in an interview that India could lose out on a historic nuclear deal with the United States if did not vote against Iran at a crucial meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency on February 2.

“The government should demand his (Mulford’s) recall from India as it is unbecoming on any ambassador’s part to comment on such matters,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) member Sitaram Yechury was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India (PTI).

Mulford also raised the hackles of the left parties by criticising them for opposing the government’s move to open India’s vast retail market to foreign investment, in an interview with PTI published on Sunday.

He has “crossed all limits by virtually dictating what India should do on a foreign policy issue like Iran and now on its economic policies and what political parties should do or not do,” said D. Raja, secretary of the Communist Party of India.

“Ambassador Mulford has made wide-ranging intervention in the internal affairs of India ... To say the least, it is very unfortunate,” Yechury said.

“It confirms our earlier apprehension that he is directly interfering in India’s internal affairs.”

Mulford had questioned the Left for objecting to the opening of India’s retail market — the world’s eighth largest and estimated at 250 billion dollars — to foreign investment.—AFP