SP ready to say goodbye to UNPA, Left intensifies threat

New Delhi, Jul 5 (UNI) The Samajwadi Party today openly came out in support of the Indo-US nuclear deal making it clear that it was ready to bid good bye to the UNPA for ''the sake of the good of the country,'' a move which the Left parties described as ''a betrayal of the concept of the Third Front''.

Meanwhile, intensifying the threat to the UPA government and alleging that the Congress was precipitating a crisis, CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said the Left parties might withdraw support to the UPA Government even before the Prime Minister's return from the G-8 summit in Japan.

Reacting to Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi's terming the Left's July seven deadline as 'discourteous', Mr Bardhan said,''If somebody wants to precipitate a crisis, we might have to withdraw support to the government even before the Prime Minister returns from Japan.'' Taking serious note of the decision reached in the last Left-UPA meeting that the government would show the text of its proposals to the Left before going to the IAEA and which the government had not done, he said, "We can not help but withdraw support to the Government if it goes ahead the way it is doing," he said.

He, however, made it clear that the Left parties would decide their future course of action on July eight or nine if the deadline was ignored.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Ajit Singh also backed the nuke deal as good for the country but described SP supporting the govenrment over the issue as 'political compulsions' driving the party to side with the Congress.

Mr Singh said the SP was facing the heat from the Uttar Pradesh Government and the Central agencies. This could be the reason why he had decided to side with the Congress.

''Also, none of the parties in Uttar Pradesh want early elections,'' he added.

Stating that the debate was no longer on the merits of the nuclear deal but political considerations that had got embroiled with the issue, Mr Singh said a final decision on whether to support the government in case of a trust motion in Parliament would be taken at the party meeting on July seven ''Now, it is a question of whether you want early elections or not,'' he added.

Mr Singh said his party was in favour of the nuclear deal, but with some reservations. In the long run, it felt that solar and wind energy offered more competitive and environment-friendly options.

The RLD, which has three MPs in the Lok Sabha, was extending outside support to the UPA Government.

He also refuted as baseless the remarks made by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati that the nuclear deal was ''anti-Muslim''.

He backed the deal saying it would enable India to have nuclear trade and transfer of technology with all 45 member-countries of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Taking a strong stand on the nuclear deal issue, BJP senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu today said the party would renegotiate the deal or cancel it, if the BJP-led NDA was voted to power.

In an interview with a private news channel, Mr Naidu, said some of the clauses of the India-US civilian nuclear cooperation agreement were not in national interest.

''Definitely, these are anti-national", Mr Naidu said, adding accepting the provisions of the Hyde Act would amount to surrendering before the US.

Asked about his party's stand if the NDA was elected to power and the Prime minister were to sign the deal, Mr Naidu said, ''Then, we will ''renegotiate. If that is not possible for any reason, we will cancel it''.

The BJP, meanwhile xxxeds pick up suitably from DI 40 (POLITICS-NUCLEAR- LEAD UNPA (COMBINES RELATED SERIES) Para 2 line one.

UNI team AKJ RK2236