Left oppose N-deal, to withdraw support to UPA: Karat

New Delhi, Jun 29: CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said the Indo-US nuclear deal, opposed by a majority of parties and MPs, was not part of the Common Minimum Programme, and indicated that the Left would withdraw support to the UPA Government if it went ahead with it.

''In December last year both Houses of Parliament discussed the deal and a majority said do not go ahead with the deal,'' Mr Karat told 'Kairali', a Malayalam channel, in an interview, amid reports that the Congress would go to the IAEA in July to operationalise the deal.

He said the only correct and honest thing for the Government-- a coalition minority dependent on the support of the Left parties-- which cannot get a majority in Parliament on the deal, would have been to say ''we believe that the deal is good for the country, but since we cannot carry our own Parliament or the supporters of our coalition Government we are not going forward''.

Mr Karat said the political crisis over the nuclear deal reflected the Congress leadership's lack of realisation that the era of single party governments was long gone.

''They talk of coalition dharma. We talk about Common Minimum Programme. We told them to give us a programme and stick to it. But the nuclear deal is nowhere in the Common Minimum Programme we and the UPA agreed upon,'' he said. ''We will not compromise on the issue.'' The CPI (M) leader also said the Government had gone back on its word given to the UPA-Left Coordination meet in November last year that it would negotiate the safeguards text with the IAEA and place it before the Consultative Committee for consideration and formulation of final findings.

''But the text was never submitted in full before the Committee,'' he added.

UNI