The Hindu : Front Page : We will wait for outcome of meetings, says Basu

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 01, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

We will wait for outcome of meetings, says Basu

Special Correspondent

“Let’s see if UPA makes concessions on nuclear deal”

UPA-Left committee meetings to be held on October 5 and 14
Pandhe reiterates party’s opposition to the deal

Kolkata: The leadership of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is waiting to see whether the United Progressive Alliance government is prepared to offer any “concessions” on the contentious India-United States nuclear deal before it decides its next course of action.

“Let the meetings be held and let us see if they [the Centre] make any concessions. Then we will see [what is to be done],” senior-most member of the party’s Polit Bureau, Jyoti Basu, said here on Sunday — the second day of deliberations of the party’s central committee.

He had earlier asserted that there could be no “compromise” with the Centre on the 123 agreement.

The meetings referred to by Mr. Basu are those of the UPA-Left committee scheduled for October 5 and 14.

The committee was set up to look into some aspects of the deal to which the CPI(M) and other Left parties are against, as well as the implications of the Hyde Act. The committee has already met twice.

M.K. Pandhe, another Polit Bureau member, said: “the only concession can be not to proceed with the operationalisation of the deal.”

Whatever decision taken by the party leadership would be unanimous, Mr. Pandhe who is also the president of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), said.

Mr. Basu emphasised on Saturday there were no differences within the Polit Bureau or between the central committee and the Polit Bureau on the stand taken by the party on the nuclear deal.

The three-day central committee, which was preceded by a meeting of the CPI(M) Polit Bureau, will end on Monday.

Issues related to rise in prices of essential commodities, wheat import, specific matters to the economic situation and the Centre’s deviation from the CMP are among those that are being taken up at the meeting, it was learnt.

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

Front Page