Samajwadi Party to 'act in the interest of the country'

New Delhi, July 5 : Reacting to the remarks of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Om Prakash Chautala that the United National Progressive Alliance may break following the decision of the Samajwadi Party to back the nuclear deal, the party's General Secretary Amar Singh said that his party would 'act in the interest of the country'.

Amar Singh said :"Neither has the Congress asked for support nor have we offered our support. We will decide when the confidence motion is moved in Parliament."

''After endorsement of the Indo-US nuclear deal by former president A P J Abdul Kalam, it was not a question of support to Sonia Gandhi or Manmohan Singh, but of what was in the interest of the country,'' he said.

Singh also called Chautala as his friend and said: "I would not like to make comment on him. I only want to say that for the Samajwadi Party, the interest of the country took precedence over that of the party, and the main issue was to fight with the communal forces which were a danger to the country."

He said the vote of confidence in Parliament will not be between the supporters and the opponents of the nuclear deal but between communal and secular forces, and the Congress was a secular party.

"We'll do anything to combat communalism. L K Advani is a greater threat to us than George Bush. America and imperialism is better than the Bharatiya Janata Party's communalism," he remarked.

Samajwadi Party leaders had on Thursday sought the advice of former President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam on the nuclear deal issue, and he had endorsed it by saying that it is in the national interest.

Singh confirmed that National Security Adviser M K Narayanan had briefed him about the deal and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had also issued a public statement that the deal is in the national interest.

ANI