The stand-off between the Left parties and the Congress-led UPA over the 123 Agreement of the Hyde Act might take an interesting turn following Congress leader and external affairs  minister Pranab Mukherjee’s “brief conversation” with CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu over telephone ahead of the October 5 meeting of the UPA-Left Committee on the nuclear agreement, reports emerging during the ongoing CPM Central Committee meeting said here on Saturday.

Even as CC member Nilotpal Basu said the party would prefer to “wait and watch” the next Congress move on operationalising the Indo-US civil nuke deal, Jyoti Basu confirmed  that he did receive a telephone call from the external affairs minister on Friday ahead of the scheduled meeting of the UPA-Left Committee, but declined to specify whether Mr Mukherjee requested him for thrashing out a compromise formula. The external affairs minister is the convener of the Committee.

“I have told him, you (Mr Mukherjee) are convening the meeting. I understand you’ll also be present there. But we cannot compromise (on the N-deal). Let us see what the Congress does and then, we shall take a decision,” the party patriarch told newsmen who asked him whether the CPM would take the “extreme step” or compromise on the nuclear deal.

Basu’s remarks, coming as it does amidst conflicting reports that the CPM leaders from Bengal are opposed to the party hardliners’ stand of toughening posture against the Congress on the nuke deal, could have a bearing on the deliberations of the CC.

Because, if Mr K Varadarajan, one of the hardliners from Tamil Nadu, is to be believed, the CC will take a ‘unanimous decision’, implying that the majority opinion will prevail in course of the 3-day crucial exercise.
However, from what Mr Nilotpal Basu had to say earlier in the day, it is evident that the CC would deliberate all aspects including the impact of a possible withdrawal of support from the Congress-led UPA government.

 “More importantly, the N-deal will have to go through the nuclear safeguards talks at the IAEA meeting and
receive assurance of fuel supply from the NSG; we’ll have to see the response of the government on these aspects,” he said.