PM dares Left to withdraw support, Communists not ready yet

New Delhi, Aug 11 (UNI) Asserting that the Indo-US nuclear deal could not be renegotiated, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today dared the Left parties to withdraw support to his government if they so desired but the Communists were unwilling to take any such step at this stage.

''We cannot go back on it. I told them (Left) to do whatever they want to do, if they want to withdraw support, so be it,'' Dr Singh told The Telegraph in an interview, obviously hurt over the Left leaders' stand that the deal was not acceptable to them.

The Prime Minister's strong statement clearly indicating his increasing frustration with the Left parties over tough posturing by them on any critical decisions taken by the UPA regime came as a rude shock to the Left leaders.

''As far as the approach to the government is concerned, we will take our own counsel,'' CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said in a statement, apparently taken aback by Dr Singh's interview to the Kolkata-based daily.

''The Prime Minister and the government must realise that the agreement is not acceptable to the majority of Parliament,'' Mr Karat said.

Other Left leaders sought to play down the Prime Minister's statement but desribed it as ''uncalled for''.

They said their support to the ruling coalition was based on certain political programme and could only be reviewed in that perspective.

They said the issue of withdrawal of support did not depend on any ''individual or a non-political advice'' from any quarter.

The BJP was, meanwhile, closely monitoring the strains in the ties between the UPA government and the Left parties over the deal. Dr Singh knew very well that ''the Left only barks and never bites,'' BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Both the Prime Minister and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, however, were categorical that there was no question of a mid-term poll. There was no threat to the government in the wake of the Left parties' strident opposition to the nuclear deal.

''Where is the question?....Why do you say that?'' was the response of Dr Singh to reporters who wanted to know whether the country was headed for mid-term polls following the threat issued by the Left.

''No, no, no'' was the reply of Ms Gandhi, who was standing next to CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, to the same query. They were talking to reporters at the Rashtrapati Bhavan after attending the swearing-in ceremony of Hamid Ansari as the Vice President.

In the interview, Dr Singh said he was ''not angry but anguished'' at the harsh tone and tenor of the Left's reaction and made it clear that the UPA-Left relationship could not be a one-sided affair.

While replying to a question, Dr Singh said: ''I don't get angry, I don't want to use harsh words. They are our colleagues and we have to work with them. But they also have to learn to work with us.'' Although he did not raise his voice, those last 10 words had a hint of steel which underlined the Prime Minister's new resolve to take on the Left. There was no immediate response from the Left leaders, Dr Singh said, adding: ''They haven't thought it through.'' While the UPA fully realised the need to work with the Left, they also had to learn to work with the government, he said.

He also made it clear that the Left had a flawed understanding not just of the 123 Agreement but also of India's intrinsic strength and its enhanced status in the world.

''It is an honourable deal which enlarges India's development options, particularly in regard to energy security and environmental protection, and it doesn't in any way affect our ability to pursue our nuclear weapons programme. We have not surrendered an iota of our freedom in this regard; not an iota of our sovereignty.'' However, Left leaders were not impressed with his arguments.

Senior CPI(M) leader and party's Deputy Floor leader in the Lok Sabha Mohammad Salim, in a hard-hitting response, said the Left did not depend on the Congress for its survivial, ''but the UPA government does so.'' On the PM's threat, Mr Salim elaborated that the Left supported the Congress-led coalition on a ''programatic understanding and on the basis of a political view in a particular political situation.'' RSP leader Abani Roy had a different view of Dr Singh's threat on withdrawal of support. ''It appears that the PM himself does not want to run his own government in the wake of its all round failure in political, economic and foreign policy affairs, be it the nuclear deal, economic refroms, price rise, the continuing agrarian crisis or unabated farmers' suicides,'' he said.

On Dr Singh's remark that Left's understanding of the 123 Agreement was ''flawed'' and India's intristic strength and status in the world, Mr Roy said he failed to understand whether all -- the NDA, UNPA and the Left -- were wrong.

UNI