The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has called the resolution adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency on the Iran nuclear issue is 'unjustifiable and one-sided'.

"It is shameful that India has voted with the United States and the western countries to refer Iran to the UN Security Council unless it complies with the demands made," it said in a press release.

The CPI(M) has said that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government has caved in to United States' pressure and gone back on its stated stand.

"Till the eve of the vote in the IAEA, the Indian government had maintained that the Iran issue should be dealt with within the framework of the IAEA and that decisions have to be taken by consensus. India had also recognised the right of Iran to develop its nuclear technology under international safeguards as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," the release said, adding that India's vote has now 'reversed all these positions'.

"India has broken ranks with the non-aligned countries which had decided not to support the US stand on Iran.  India voting for the resolution along with the US and the European Union-3 has violated its own stand that decisions should be taken by consensus in the IAEA board," the CPI(M) says.

• India's vote on Iran not linked to the US

The party asks if the 'government (can) justify the demand in the resolution that Iran cannot proceed with enrichment of uranium or the demand to stop the construction of a heavy water research reactor. This goes against India's declared stand that Iran has the right to nuclear technology under international safeguards as an nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signatory."

The CPI(M) also states that it had given prior warning that the India-US agreement signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's [Images] visit to the US in July would 'virtually convert India into an ally of the United States'.

This agreement, it says, has made the government 'cave in under the threat from the United States that it has to choose where it stands - with the US or Iran - and the blunt message that the nuclear cooperation agreement will not be ratified by the US Congress if India takes an independent stand.'

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) has 'strongly condemned the stand taken by the Indian government in the IAEA.' The release says that this vote has 'caused immense damage to India's standing in the non-aligned and developing countries. The UPA government should know that such a stance will not be acceptable to the people of India.'

When the issue of Iran comes up again in the IAEA in November, the CPI(M) wants India to 'take a stand in consonance with an independent foreign policy and national interests. It should not endorse the blackmail by the nuclear haves and should oppose any discriminatory treatment to Iran.'

The CPI(M) says that it will call for a 'countrywide campaign to compel the Manmohan Singh government to take such a stand.'

• Iran, US: India's Catch 22