The Hindu : Front Page : It will be more difficult to stop deal when PM comes back to Parliament: Yechury

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Tuesday, Jul 01, 2008
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It will be more difficult to stop deal when PM comes back to Parliament: Yechury

Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI: CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said on Monday that if the government moved ahead formally to sign a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the party would implement the Polit Bureau decision of withdrawing support.

Mr. Yechury said the Prime Minister had time and again given statements about returning to Parliament after completing processes such as signing of a safeguards agreement with the IAEA, getting a waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) and an endorsement by the United States Congress.

Mr. Yechury said it would be much more difficult to stop the agreement when the Prime Minister “comes back to Parliament, because they will say the whole world is in favour of the deal.”

CPI national secretary D Raja said the Left could not agree to the Prime Minister’s promise of coming back to Parliament before operationalising the deal.

“The government should not go ahead to seek ratification of the safeguards agreement from the IAEA Board of Governors, which in itself is a step in operationalising the deal.”

Mr. Raja said his party would not have any objection to the Prime Minister’s visit to Tokyo for the G-8 summit but he should not make any commitment there that the government would go ahead with the nuclear deal.

“If he makes any such commitment, the Left will have no other option but to withdraw support.”

Terming Dr. Singh’s statement “political deceit,” RSP general secretary T. J. Chandrachoodan said the Prime Minister’s formula of coming back to Parliament for discussion did not mean anything as the deal will be virtually operationalised when it gets the U.S. Congress’ clearance.

“If they [Congress] think they can tie the Left at their stable, they are mistaken. Once the deal is discussed at the IAEA, NSG and the U.S. Congress, the deal is on. Then there is no role for us and the government cannot change anything. The Prime Minister’s remarks are an indication that the government is moving ahead and that there will be an inevitable separation of the UPA and the Left,” he said.

A political question

Forward Bloc Secretary G. Devarajan said: “It seems that the Prime Minister does not know the Left parties very well. They take a decision on any issue after giving it a lot of thought. Once a decision is taken, normally we don’t go back and in nuclear deal also, we are not changing our stand. For us, the deal is not a technical issue; it is a political question.”

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