Left might withdraw support to govt if pushed further: sources

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, Aug 20 (UNI) The uncompromising position of the UPA and the Left parties on the Indo-US nuclear deal may endanger the survival of the three-year-old Manmohan Singh government, sources indicated today.

Even as the top Left leaders chose not to address newspersons after their two- and a-half-hour long session to deliberate on the pact, sources said the situation might slip out of hand if the government continued to ignore their viewpoint.

A top Left leader, on the condition of anonymity, told UNI that they would withdraw support to the government if the latter went ahead with the negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on September 14.

The Left leader's remarks assume special significance in the wake of reports of Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar's scheduled visit to hold negotiations with IAEA on September 14.

Sources said the Manmohan Singh government seemed to be taking a ''stubborn'' position on the deal and the Left parties are also not ready to give in on their stated position.

Even as the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi denied any crisis for the government over the nuke deal and the CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu ruled out the possibility of a mid-term election, the sources insisted that the crisis seemed to be serious.

Sticking to their guns on the Indo-US nuke deal, the Left parties warned the Manmohan Singh government against operationalising it, even as they did not undermine the significance of setting up a committee or a mechanism to evaluate the Hyde Act implications, which they said ''governed the 123 Agreement.'' ''The Left parties can understand the setting up of a committee or any other mechanism which can go into the objections regarding the agreement and evaluate the implications of the Hyde Act for the nuclear cooperation deal, but this can be followed only when the next step at the IAEA is not taken,'' said the CPI(M), CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP.

The Left parties joint meeting, attended by Prakash Karat, A B Bardhan, Sitaram Yechury and others, issued a one page 'terse' statement detailing their position, wide-spread opposition to the agreement and the majority against it in Parliament.

D Raja of CPI read out the statement to the mediapersons gathered at the CPI(M) headquarters A K Gopalan Bhawan.

The statement has been signed... picking up from para one, line one of DI 72, NUCLEAR-LEFT-WARNING TWO LAST NEW DELHI.

UNI

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