Govt not bound to ‘accept Left concerns’

“Taking into account never means you are bound by it,” Sibal told Karan Thapar on India Tonight programme telecast on CNN-IBN.

Left parties have raised certain concerns about the civil nuclear deal with the US and a UPA-Left committee has been formed to discuss the concerns. The committee will ‘take into account’ the Left concerns while operationalising the deal, government had said.

This interview was conducted before the constitution of the Committee of which Sibal is a member.

“We will talk about them (concerns of Left parties). We will try and deal with those concerns and when we come to a final decision, which we have to, we will take them into account,” he said.

Sibal claimed that the Left parties had never said that the government was bound to accept their concerns on the deal.

Asked about the time frame for the committee to address the Left concerns, the minister said, ‘it could take a month’.

Though there was no date for operationalising the civil nuclear deal with the US, Sibal said the ‘sooner the better’.