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Saturday, Nov 03, 2007
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Ready for many meetings: Karat

Special Correspondent

“Looking forward to debate on nuclear deal”

KOLKATA: General secretary of the Communist Party of India(Marxist) Prakash Karat on Friday said he hoped that the November 16 meeting of the United Progressive Alliance-Left committee on the India-United States nuclear cooperation agreement would “arrive at some conclusions.”

“We are prepared to have as many meetings [as are required] to come to a conclusion on how to resolve the issue,” he told journalists here.

“Nobody has said that this [the coming] meeting is the last,” he said. There was need for a “serious effort by the committee” to arrive at a conclusion. “We are prepared to spend as much time as is necessary, as we consider it a vital matter.”

“We are not talking of withdrawal of support [to the government]… The point is that the government will operationalise the deal only after taking into account the findings of the [UPA-Left] committee,” Mr. Karat said in reply to a question whether his party was considering such a move.

“We are also looking towards discussions on the nuclear deal in the winter session of Parliament though we are not insisting on one on a voting resolution; it can be a non-voting resolution,” Mr. Karat added. “Parliament’s view on the deal should be elicited. We have an opportunity for that in the coming session,” he said.

Mr. Karat said that it was well known that the government and the Left parties interpreted the term “operationalisation” differently. “All that has been discussed and we have exchanged notes on the committee,” he said.

To a question on the possibility of a “third alternative” being forged, he said, “We have an understanding of a third alternative as a broad-based platform for common policy issues – a wider and deeper arrangement which is not an electoral compulsion or requirement.”

It would take some time and they were working towards a more long-term prospect.

Earlier in the day, veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu said the Left wanted the government at the Centre to continue.

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