UPA-Left panel discuss agenda on nuke treaty

New Delhi, Sep 11: The UPA-Left committee on the Indo-US nuclear deal today held its first formal meeting and unveiled the agenda for taking forward its task of finding a common ground among the ruling coalition and the supporting Left parties on the vexed issue which threatened to destabilise the 39-month-old Manmohan Singh government.

The 15-member panel, headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, discussed the procedures for the functioning of the 'political mechanism', set up last week to remove the concerns of the four Left parties on the consequences that the 123 agreement on the deal would have on the independent foreign policy, sovereignty and the country's weapons programmes.

Emerging from the 45-minute-long meeting held at the official residence of Mr Mukherjee, CPI(M) Polit Bureau Member Sitaram Yechury and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad told mediapersons that the committee had framed two broad issues --Implications of the Hyde Act on the Indo-US 123 Agreement and self-reliance in the nuclear sector as well as its implications on the country's foreign policy and security cooperation.

The next meeting of the committee would be held here on September 19.

Today's meeting comes a day after Parliament was adjourned sine die four days ahead of schedule on the nuclear deal issue.

A determined BJP-led Opposition forced early adjournment yesterday as it was not willing to settle for anything less than a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to go into the nuke deal. The Opposition had disrupted the proceedings in Parliament for four consecutive days last week and this week demanding a JPC, in place of the Left-UPA committee.

CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan told UNI