NEW DELHI: The Left parties on Friday demanded that the discussion on the Iran nuclear issue be held immediately. They said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should remember that it was a coalition government and not one of the Congress. "We are the supporting parties, and the Prime Minister is aware of the serious differences [on the Iran issue]. It should be discussed immediately," Communist Party of India leader Gurudas Dasgupta said in the Lok Sabha even as Dr. Singh rose to make a suo motu statement.

CPI (M) leader Basudeb Acharia too echoed the demand. All political parties were keen that their views be heard, he said.

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said he had accepted the notice given by the Left parties for a structured discussion on the issue, and urged them to listen to the Prime Minister.

Earlier at a press conference, the Left leaders identified Iran as one of the four issues they would take up for discussion in Parliament. The nuclear deal with the United States, foreign direct investment in retail trade and privatisation of the Mumbai and Delhi airports were the other issues.

Foreign policy questioned

Questioning the talk of conducting the foreign policy keeping in mind the "enlightened national interest," CPI (M) Rajya Sabha leader Nilotpal Basu said the Left parties did not know whether the national interest had any division in the form of "elitist" or "enlightened."

"Now that the Bharatiya Janata Party is part of it, are we the forces of darkness," he asked.

Mr. Dasgupta said it was "unbecoming" on the part of Dr. Singh to make a statement soon after the President's Address to Parliament. Normally, no other discussion takes place till the motion of thanks to the President's Address is passed.

"The Prime Minister has forgotten that he is not leading a Congress but [a] multi-party government with [the] support of the Left, and the way in which the Government is running it is not paying heed to others," he said. CPI (M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said while the need to generate power from nuclear energy to meet the growing requirement was understood, India should not tie itself down to uranium supplies, which the U.S. could use as a lever. Instead, there was a need to develop thorium, which India has in adequate quantities.

Other issues

The Left parties would also raise issues such as distress in agriculture sector and wheat imports during the session. Mr. Yechury said the per capita availability of foodgrains was the lowest since Independence and was equivalent to what existed during the Bengal famine.

Rupchand Pal (CPI-M), C.K. Chandrappan (CPI), Manoj Bhattacharya (RSP) and Bir Singh Mahato (AIFB) were also present at the press conference.

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