Congress, Left afraid of facing people: Venkaiah

Chennai, Oct 10 (UNI) Senior BJP Leader M Venkaiah Naidu today accused the Congress and the Left parties of delaying the Indo-US nuclear deal as they were ''afraid of facing the people.'' Talking to newspersons here, he said the Congress and the Left, though held divergent views on the nuclear deal, were holding meetings after meetings on the issue only to ''hoodwink'' the people.

''The Congress and the Left parties are afraid of facing the people. They are not confident of facing the people due to their failures'', Mr Naidu said. Having taken extreme positions on the issue, both the parties, could no way retract, without losing face, he added.

Pointing out that the next meeting between the two parties was scheduled to be held on October 22, he said ''any amount of meeting between the Congress and the Left will not help to resolve the issue and the only solution is to go to the people.'' On Congress President Sonia Gandhi's remarks at a public meeting in Haryana, that those who opposed the nuclear deal were the enemies of development, the BJP leader said the Left were opposing the deal and it should be construed that the Left parties were the enemies of development.

The Congress should explain as to why it was holding talks with the enemies, he demanded. ''It is a thoughtless clarification,'' he said when asked about clarifications offered by the Congress that Ms Gandhi's remarks were in the context of Haryana.

Stating that the Congress-led UPA government could not take any important decisions, Mr Naidu said ''the earlier the election, the better.'' UNI WS AB HT1624