It’s good Govt sees a point in what we’re saying: Left

Left parties welcomed the statements of PM Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi on the nuclear deal.

Left parties welcomed the statements of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chief Sonia Gandhi on the nuclear deal, saying the government was committed to considering the findings of the joint mechanism set up to allay their concerns on the issue.

“The government will proceed on the deal only after the committee formed to give an opinion on ramifications of the deal gives its opnion. On the basis of the written agreement between the Left and the government, we will deliberate on the October 22,” CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.

CPI general secretary A B Bardhan said the deal has never been the ‘end-all’ of the government but that is what has been propogated for all these days.

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“I have always been saying that why do you want to sacrifice your own government on the altar of this nuclear deal,” he said, adding perhaps ‘sobreity’ has returned.

His party colleague D Raja said, “it is good that they see a point now on what the Left has been saying on the deal. It is a positive development that they will give consideration to the concerns expressed by the Left in national interests.”

Singh said the failure to carry the deal through would not be ‘the end of life’ and Gandhi said the Left parties, which were opposing the deal, were not being ‘unreasonable’ and the government was not looking for a confrontation with them.

Lashing out at BJP, Raja said had the saffron party been in power, “they would have done worse things. It was BJP (government) which had started the strategic partnership with the US. They had also amended the Electricity Act to allow Enron during their 13 days in government, making the country weak and vulnerable to dependence on foreign countries for energy needs. What BJP is doing now is sheer hypocrisy and duplicity.”

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Welcoming the statements, Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas said, “we have been consistently saying that the agreement is not beneficial for the country. The Government must stick to the Common Minimum Programme.”

He also maintained that the Left had never said they would pull down the government on this count.

Their comments came hours after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh suggested that the failure of the agreement with the US was not ‘end of life’ even though it will be a disappointment.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi also indicated that Congress was unwilling to sacrifice the government for the deal.