New Delhi: With political activity over the nuclear deal reaching a crescendo, top Left party leaders met in the Capital on Friday for a brainstorming session to work out the timing and modalities of withdrawing support to the UPA Government over the issue.
Left parties want the Government to clarify whether it is finalising the India specific safeguard agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a crucial step to take forward the contentious 123 Agreement with the US.
At a press conference after the meeting, Prakash Karat said that they have written a letter to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee regarding the Indo-US nuclear deal. He also said that the Left has set July 7 as the deadline to know from Government whether it is going ahead to seek IAEA approval for safeguards agreement.
Left leaders AB Bardhan and D Raja said, “We have already made it clear that once we get confirmation that the Government is going to IAEA we will withdraw support.”
The CPI-M also declared that July 14 onwards the Left parties will run a campaign “to explain to the masses the anti-people policies of the UPA Government.”
Karat reiterated the Left’s stand that they “oppose the efforts of BJP to whip up communal polarisation.”
The Left Coordination Committee meeting, which began at the CPI-M Headquarters, was attended by CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat, his CPI counterpart A B Bardhan and other senior leaders, including Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI), RSP leaders T J Chandrachoodan and Abani Roy and Forward Bloc's Debabrata Biswas and G Devarajan.
The meeting also discussed the fallout of Thursday's meeting of the UNPA.
"The question is not whether they are going (to IAEA). The fact that they are going ahead is clear, but when is the question," Bardhan had said on Thursday, noting that there were "no two opinions" about the Left decision to withdraw support.
The CPI leader also said, "Modalities will be decided (in the meeting)... we have to write to the President (to declare withdrawal of support)...all these things will be decided."
A senior Left leader earlier said that parties had come up with a "charge-sheet" against the UPA citing its several drawbacks and failures, including "surrendering of national interest, rising prices and inflation and unkept promises with regard to the Common Minimum Programme."
To a query whether the Left parties would wait for the Prime Minister to return from the G-8 summit in Japan before taking the ultimate step, Bardhan had said, "If they tell us they are going on the 5th or 6th, we will withdraw then itself. But in the normal course, we will wait till he comes back."
The Left party leaders are expecting that the Government will approach the IAEA within a week or so.
The CPI-M had warned the UPA that the BJP is now nurturing hopes of returning to power and asked the Government to implement the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) in the right earnest instead of "passionately" pursuing issues like the nuclear deal.
The party also told the Government not to bank on its support if it plans to go ahead with the deal.
"It is high time that the UPA government scrupulously adheres to the Common Minimum Programme and works for its implementation in the right earnest, instead of passionately pursuing issues like the Indo-US nuclear deal which does not figure in the CMP," said an editorial in party mouthpiece People's Democracy.
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