NEW DELHI, Aug 18: The Indian government’s communist allies warned on Saturday of “serious consequences” if New Delhi went ahead with a landmark nuclear deal with the United States.

The thinly-veiled threat alarmed the ruling Congress party, prompting it to call an emergency meeting of its leaders later on Saturday.

“Don’t take the next step in the deal,” Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) General Secretary Prakash Karat said after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Indian capital.

“The government should not proceed further till all doubts and apprehensions (about the agreement) are evaluated,” he told reporters.

The face-off widens the chasm between the ruling Congress coalition and the four leftist groups which prop it up in parliament.

However, the communists stopped short of specifically threatening to withdraw support from the Congress-led coalition government, which would reduce it to a minority administration.

The controversial agreement promises to offer long-denied Western nuclear technology to energy-starved India, where existing atomic facilities account for just three per cent of its total power output.

Karat said Singh’s Congress party-led government must not “operationalise” the deal, which now needs approval from the 45-nation Nuclear Supply Group and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) global watchdog.

“The government should not take the next step with regards to negotiating on the safeguards agreement with the IAEA and it is for the Congress leadership to decide on the matter which will have serious consequences for the government and the country,” he warned.

Karat said the CPM’s policy-making politburo would seek to rally national opinion against the deal, struck when US President George W. Bush visited India in March 2005.

“The politburo has decided to take the issue of the nuclear agreement and the dangers of the strategic alliance with the US to the people through a nationwide mass campaign,” he said.

The Communist Party of India, another partner of Congress, warned it would lower the “level of cooperation” with the now-shaky government.

“The level of cooperation will now go down and our support to it will be merit-based from now on,” party national secretary Doraiswamy Raja said.

The communists oppose closer ties with the United States and say that the deal threatens India’s sovereignty.

The main opposition Hindu nationalist BJP party, sensing a chance to hammer the government, dared the Communists to oppose the deal in a parliamentary vote.

“The Communists should stand up and be counted when that happens in parliament,” BJP spokesman V.K. Malhotra told reporters.—AFP