Sonia to talk to Left on Nuke deal

New Delhi, Aug 25: UPA Chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi will initiate a crucial round of talks with the Left Parties on Monday or Tuesday to defuse the stand-off over the Indo-US Nuclear deal. Ahead of the exercise to explore a common ground with the Left parties, whose continuing outside support is vital for the survival of the 38-month-old Manmohan Singh government, Ms Gandhi is likely to interact with the senior leaders of the Congress Party and also the UPA constituents.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, who share a good relationship with the Left parties, has reportedly started preparing the ground for a "smooth and purposeful" talks between Ms Gandhi and the Left leaders.

Congress sources said Ms Gandhi, who has been successfully leading the coalition at the centre since May 2004, would not be wanting in her effort to convince the Left of the need to stand together without forcing a mid-term election which might prove beneficial to the BJP-led NDA.

''With a change in the tone and tenor of the Left being visible in the past few days, we hope there will not be any problem for Ms Gandhi to avert a crisis to the government through negotiations with the Left,'' a senior Congress leader said here today.

Party sources indicated that the Indo-US Nuclear treaty would be discussed in Parliament only after Ms Gandhi's interaction with the Left.

The general mood among the Congress leaders is to buy peace with the Left before the Parliament debate so as to avoid an embarrassing situation. It was originally announced that the debate would take place in the Lok Sabha on August 29 or 30, depending on the convenience of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Ms Gandhi had detailed discussions with senior leaders of the party last night and reportedly finalised the contours of a formula that could help the government complete its remaining two years of the current term.

The core group of the Congress leaders, including External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A K Antony, Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Ms Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel, met within a few hours after Ms Gandhi returned to the capital after her three-day long visit to South Africa. In fact, Ms Gandhi cut short her four-day trip to South Africa by a day, apparently due to political compulsions in the wake of the widening chasm between the UPA and the Left parties.

Ms Gandhi is likely to discuss with the Left the possibility of setting up a mechanism to assess the implications of the US' Hyde Act, an India-specific legislation which the Left believe would impinge on the independent foreign policy and the sovereignty of the country.

A major point of the discussion would be the Indian government's approach towards the September 14 meeting of the IAEA in Vienna.

The Left had been opposing negotiations with the IAEA and the NSG before removing the apprehensions on the 123 agreement to operationalise the Indo-US Nuclear deal.

The Core Committee assessed the magnitude of the Left threat especially in the context of meeting of the CPI(M) Central Committee (CC), the highest policy making body of the major partner of the Left.

The CC meeting on Thursday did not bring any qualitative improvement on the crisis front, but the Core Committee meeting saw in CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat"s remarks his party"s willingness to provide the government more time and space for negotiations. UNI