N-deal: Pranab hopeful of ‘acceptable’ solution

Admitting “time constraints”, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee — UPA’s chief interlocutor with the Left...

Admitting “time constraints”, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee — UPA’s chief interlocutor with the Left — on Friday said that “concerns of different sections will have to be addressed adequately”. He was also “hopeful” of arriving at an “acceptable solution”.

Mukherjee said, “You are aware that we are currently engaged in resolving these issues and I do hope through the discussions of all the parties concerned it will be possible to arrive at an acceptable solution.” He said this at a joint press conference with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi here when asked about the Indo-US nuclear deal.

“Of course, I am aware of the time constraints. But at the same time we shall have to keep in view that the concerns expressed from different sections are to be addressed adequately,” he said.

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Mukherjee’s statement came a day after the Government’s official sources had said that the Government was “determined to go ahead with the nuclear deal”.

This statement also assumes significance since Congress has carried on the dialogue with the Left leadership, even after the UPA-Left committee folded up on June 25.

Mukherjee met CPM’s Sitaram Yechury as they conferred for an hour-and-a-half on Thursday.

The Congress is also weighing its options on the polls, since the inflation figures crossed 11.4 per cent on Friday. And Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said that inflation will remain in double digits for the next few weeks.

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