The Hindu : Front Page : Destabilisation is not our intention: Bardhan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 29, 2007
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Destabilisation is not our intention: Bardhan

Vinay Kumar

A.B. Bardhan

NEW DELHI: While reiterating the August 7 stand of the Left parties rejecting the India-U.S. civilian nuclear cooperation agreement, the Communist Party of India (CPI) on Tuesday made it clear that it has “no intention to either destabilise this government or country or force an election at this time.”

Democratic path

“We have taken a democratic path of telling the government what our concerns and objections are, these conditions being there they [the UPA government] should not proceed to operationalise the nuclear deal,” CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan said.

Briefing reporters after day-long deliberations of the party’s national executive where the nuclear deal and the prevailing political situation figured prominently, Mr. Bardhan favoured setting up of a mechanism at the political level to address the concerns of the Left parties.

Mr. Bardhan’s support for having a mechanism came a day after senior Congress leaders, including External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, had separate meetings with him and CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and Polit Bureau and Rajya Sabha member Sitaram Yechury. “I do not know what is going to be the composition of the mechanism or how much time will it take to discuss all objections and concerns. Scientists and legal experts may be invited for giving their opinion on specific points. But the decision will have to be taken on a political level. We do not know what the government intends to do, the ball is in their court,” he said.

Mr. Bardhan said the government should decide on the terms and references of the mechanism.

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