Govt committed to allay Left concerns on N-deal

New Delhi, Oct 13: Reacting to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's remarks on the Indo-US nuclear deal, which indicated that the government would not be sacrificed for the deal, the Left parties today said the Centre was committed to allaying concerns on the deal.

CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said the government was committed to consider the findings of the joint committee set up to look into the concerns on the issue.

"The government will proceed on the deal only after the committee formed to give an opinion on ramifications of the deal gives its opinion," Yechury said.

The committee will meet again on October 22.

CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said he has always been maintaining that why the government should be sacrificed for the nuclear deal.

Echoing Bardhan's remarks, CPI leader D Raja said, "It is a positive development (that) they will give consideration to the concerns expressed by the Left in national interests."

Forward Bloc General Secretary Debabrata Biswas said that the Left had never said that they would pull down the government on the nuclear issue.

At an interaction at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi, Prime Minister Singh said the failure to carry the deal through would not be "the end of life" even though it will be a disappointment.

Sonia Gandhi indicated that the Congress was unwilling to sacrifice the government for the deal.

The UPA-Left Committee set up to look into the concerns on the nuclear deal held it's last meeting on October 9.

The Left has been insisting that the deal would make India subservient to US interests and asked the Centre not to go ahead with the 'operationalisation' of the deal.

They asked the Congress-led UPA Government not to go ahead with the talks for the India-specific agreement with the IAEA that are needed for the operationalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

ANI
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