With the spectre of a rupture in UPA-Left ties over the contentious Indo-US nuclear deal looming large, major Left parties on Tuesday convened meetings of their respective decision making bodies in an attempt to project that they were ready for the inevitable.The decision to convene the meetings came a day ahead of the crucial meeting of the UPA-Left joint nuclear committee and amid clear signals from the Left leaders that they will part ways with the ruling coalition if the Government went ahead with signing of the India-specific safeguards agreement at the IAEA.While the CPI(M) Politburo will meet here on June 29, the CPI’s National Secretariat is scheduled to be held in the first week of July. The Central Secretariat of the All India Forward Bloc will also meet here on July 3. The CPI’s National Executive is also scheduled to meet here on July 12 and 13.The Central Committee, the highest decision making body of the CPI(M) during the party Congress recess, has already authorised the 15-member Politburo to take whatever necessary measures to see that the nuclear deal with the US is not operationalised.On the eve of the nuclear committee meeting to resolve the stalemate, sources in the Left insist that they do not see any middlepath. “The Government’s insistence to confirm the safeguards agreement has put a divider between us. I do not see any breakthrough,” a senior Left leader, who is a member of the committee, told The Indian Express.
