Left not bothered about fall of UPA on nuke issue: Yechury

New Delhi, Aug 19: CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury today said the Left was not bothered about the possible fall of the UPA government in the wake of the stalemate over the Indo-US nuclear deal. ''How can I assure you. This is not the issue we are concerned with. The issue is the nuclear deal,'' Mr Yechury told reporters to a question whether the Left could say that there was no threat to the stability of the Manmohan Singh government.

The Left was open to consider any suggestion from the government but there has been no proposal so far, he said and expressed the hope that the UPA would be in a position to offer something after the Congress core committee meeting and discussions within the allies.

He, however, ruled out the Left parties coming out with any formula to overcome the present crisis.

Talking to reporters after meeting External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and other Congress leaders, including Mr A K Anthony and Ahmed Patel, he denied reports that the Left had given four months' time to the government to end the impasse.

There was no change in the CPI(M)'s demand for putting on hold implementation of the deal until the ''dangerous implications for the country's sovereignty'' arising from the deal were addressed.

He also maintained that the Hyde Act, the US law relating to the Indo-US nuclear deal, had supremacy over the 123 agreement as far as the US was concerned and as such there was need for amending the US law in tune with the provisions of the bilateral pact for cooperation in civil nuclear energy.

UNI