The Hindu : Front Page : Don’t take next step on deal, says CPI(M)

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Tuesday, Oct 02, 2007
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Don’t take next step on deal, says CPI(M)

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) cautioned the government against “taking the next step of negotiating the text of a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency” on the nuclear deal with the United States.

“The UPA government should not proceed further on the next steps with regard to the nuclear deal till it can be discussed in the winter session of Parliament. That is where matters stand,” party general secretary Prakash Karat said here on Monday at the end of the three-day meeting of the party’s central committee. The committee “authorised the Polit Bureau to take appropriate steps to see that its stand is implemented.” Mr. Karat declined to comment on what the “appropriate steps” might be but said: “They will be dependant on what the government does. I do not know what the government will say.”

“Yes, an attempt is being made to grapple with the issues we have posed before the UPA-Left committee [set up to examine the various aspects of the Hyde Act and its implications on foreign policy and security related matters]. Both sides are trying to resolve our different perceptions; it will be unfair to say this will not achieve anything but we are clear that they [the government] should not proceed without resolving the matter,” he said.

The committee is to meet again on October 5 and 14 “but we would like Parliament to discuss the issue.”

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