The UPA-Left disagreement over the Indo-US nuclear deal threatened to assume a larger political dimension ahead of next week’s parliamentary debate on the deal.

The Left parties on Saturday reacted angrily over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s “unprovoked” challenge to them to withdraw support to the government.

“As far as (CPM’s) approach to the government is concerned, we will take our own counsel,” CPM general secretary Prakash Karat asserted in a statement issued here late Saturday evening.

Mr Karat was taking exception to the prime minister’s remarks in an interview published in a daily on Saturday that the Left parties could withdraw support to his government if they did not accept the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Responding to Dr Singh’s assertion that there was no question of renegotiating the nuclear deal, Mr Karat emphasised that “the prime minister and the government must realise that this agreement (nuclear deal) is not acceptable to the majority in Parliament.”

The CPM leader was obviously alluding to the fact that besides the Left parties the entire Opposition in the NDA and the recently formed United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) was opposed to the nuclear deal. Without the Left, the government would be reduced to a minority both in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

Mr Karat also disagreed with the prime minister’s assertions that the deal with the US would help India’s standing at the international level.

“We do not share the optimism that India can become a great power with the help of the United States. India is a country endowed with sufficient resources and self-confidence to carve out its own path of development,” he asserted.

Privately, however, Left leaders expressed surprise that the prime minister should openly dare the Left parties to withdraw support over the issue.

“At no point in time, have we even remotely suggested that we would vote out the government or vote with the Opposition in Parliament over the nuclear issue though we have clearly conveyed our inability to accept the deal,” said one Left MP.

That appeared to be the case as veteran CPM leader Jyoti Basu was quoted as saying in Kolkata on Thursday that the Left parties would stage a walk out in Parliament if the Opposition sought a vote on the nuclear deal. According to sources, the CPM had contemplated a much stronger statement than the one eventually issued in the evening by Mr Karat.

The Congress leadership is believed to have got in touch with top CPM leaders during the day to douse a major controversy from erupting ahead of scheduled parliamentary debate over the deal next week. The sources said the CPM leadership was persuaded to tone down its attack on the prime minister’s assertions.

Fire-fighting
Clear hints of fire-fighting consultations during the day were available from the prime minister’s remarks to newsmen at Rashtrapati Bhawan late in the evening that all differences with the Left parties would be “amicably settled.”

Even after behind the curtain consultations that intended to cool the raising tempers, the CPM, however, kept up some suspense on its strategy for the parliamentary debate.

“I am not saying that we are satisfied. We will go by our counsel,” CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said at Rashtrapati Bhawan where he attended the swearing in ceremony of Mr Hamid Ansari as the country’s new vice-president. When persisted, he quipped: “keep some news for a later date…we will debate it in Parliament.” He, however, added that the Left did not treat the prime minister’s challenge as a “snub.”

N-deal: BJP EGGS ON LEFT TO BRING DOWN GOVT
New Delhi, DHNS: The main opposition, BJP, on Saturday asked the Left parties to withdraw their outside support to the government in view of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's “challenge” to them on the Indo-US nuclear deal.
The prime minister, in a recent interview to an English daily,  had said that it would not be possible to renegotiate the nuclear deal and called upon the Left parties to withdraw support, if they wanted.

The Left parties, like the BJP have been opposing the 123 civil-nuclear agreement.

“This sudden display of courage by the prime minister is intriguing. This courage was never there even on a whimper when democracy got murdered in Goa recently, when there had been suicides by farmers,” BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said. Mr Prasad expressed the hope that Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and the Rajya Sabha Chairman would allow voting on the 123 agreement. He stated that  the Left was required to prove its “sincerity” and withdraw support to the government.

“Hypocrisy and double standards have been legendary rights of communists right from the freedom movement. They now enjoy being in power, that too without accountability. But it’s time for them to bite now,” he remarked.
He alleged that Dr Singh had compromised national interest by reportedly stating that India’s compliance with the 123 agreement would be monitored by member nations of the Nuclear Supplier Group.