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Thursday, Nov 15, 2007
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Disrespect to Parliament: CPI leader

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India on Wednesday said the winter session of Parliament would be nothing less than a “mockery.”

Addressing a press conference on the eve of the session, Gurudas Dasgupta and D. Raja, party MPs, said that even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be going abroad during the short session. “This amounts to showing utter disrespect to Parliament,” they said.

Koodankulam issue

The CPI leaders also sought an explanation from the government why it did not sign a nuclear agreement with Russia for four more nuclear reactors to the Koodankulam plant in Tamil Nadu.

“The Prime Minister will have to explain why the government did not sign this agreement during his visit to Russia. Parliament should be informed about this,” Mr. Raja said.

He was reacting to reports that the India-Russia deal was scheduled for signing during Dr. Singh’s visit to Moscow but did not materialise due to last-minute hitches.

However, the government said the failure to sign the agreement was not a setback to bilateral relations.

Mr. Dasgupta said they would raise other issues such as price rise, collapse of the public distribution system and Sachar Committee recommendations.

On the recent developments in Nandigram, Mr. Dasgupta said he did not agree with the method used to “recapture” the area and the job that should have been done by the government was done by somebody else.

Nuclear deal

On the civilian nuclear deal with the U.S., he said the Left stand was flexible in allowing the government to discuss India-specific safeguards with the International Atomic Energy Agency but asserted it did not mean giving a blank cheque.

“The government has to come back to the UPA-Left committee on the nuclear deal. There is no U-turn and there is no climbdown in our stand. The deal cannot be operationalised till the findings of the committee are finalised and taken into account,” Mr. Dasgupta said.

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