UPA-Left Committee to meet over N-deal
New
Delhi,
Sept11:
The
first
meeting
of
the
United
Progressive
Alliance
(UPA)-Left
committee
on
the
Indo-US
civil
nuclear
deal
will
be
held
here
today.
According
to
Communist
Party
of
India-Marxist
(CPI-M)
leader
Sitaram
Yechury,
modalities
on
addressing
the
issue
will
be
finalised
in
today"s
meeting.
Left parties has warned the UPA Government of "serious consequences" if the 123 agreement is operationalised.
The 15-member committee, with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee as its Convenor, has six Congress leaders, six leaders of the Left Front and one from UPA constituents Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Mukherjee's senior cabinet colleagues A K Antony, P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Saifuddin Soz, Prithviraj Chavan, Lalu Prasad of RJD, T R Baalu of DMK and Sharad Pawar will be the other members representing the government.
Left parties will be represented by Prakash Karat, Yechury, A B Bardhan and D Raja (CPI), Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc) and T J Chandrachoodan of RSP.
CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat yesterday sounded a clear warning to the Central Government. He asserted a majority of the Parliament members were against the deal.
"Now we are in majority. If the government still decides to ignore the voice of the Parliament and the voice of the people, it will have to pay the consequences. I'm very clear about that," he said.
Meanwhile, Parliament was adjourned sine die, four days ahead of the scheduled end of the Monsoon Session.
The BJP led NDA members has been disrupting the Parliament proceedings for last one week and have been demanding constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to look into the nuclear deal.
The BJP has also demanded scrapping of the Left-UPA panel to review the nuke deal.
The UPA government had rejected all three demands of the BJP-constitution of a JPC, scrapping of the Left-UPA panel and holding the debate under rules that entail voting after the end of discussion.
ANI>