The Hindu : National : CPI assurance to Prime Minister

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 04, 2006

National

National

CPI assurance to Prime Minister

Special Correspondent

"Manmohan must address Left concerns"

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India on Thursday reiterated it would not join hands with the BJP in bringing a resolution on the India-U.S. nuclear deal in Parliament and conveyed the stand to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

CPI parliamentary party leader Gurudas Dasgupta conveyed this to the Prime Minister on Wednesday after the latter made it clear that any move by the Left parties to go with the BJP would mean the "end of the day" for his Government.

The CPI leaders who met the Prime Minister along with him included C.K. Chandrappan and S. Sudhakar Reddy.

Mr. Dasgupta said the CPI leaders emphasised they would not be seen in the company of the BJP but at the same time would like the Prime Minister to issue a statement taking into account the Left's concerns.

"The Prime Minister must have said it in anguish. We made our position clear. We are not talking of a sense of the House but there could be some convergence of views [during a debate] but that does not mean going with the BJP and we are not in favour of a resolution'' Mr. Dasgupta said.

In his press conference, the CPI leader also demanded that Mr. Jaswant Singh should either delete the reference about the `mole' in his book or the Government should ban his book. He said the BJP leader had not been able to substantiate his claim and his charges had shown the country in a bad light.

Taking exception to the move to amend the Right to Information Act, he said instead of stating that the Government would permit file notings on social and developmental issues to be made public, it should come out with a list of departments that would be exempted.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National