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N-Deal
CPM politburo to meet today
Subhrangshu Gupta
Tribune News Service

Kolkata, August 15
The two-day CPM politburo, which will meet in New Delhi from tomorrow, is likely to take "a tough line" against the UPA government on the Indo-US nuclear deal in the wake of Manmohan Singh's "ultimatum" to the Left parties, stating that "if they want to withdraw support, so be it".

Though the Prime Minister had given an assurance in the Lok Sabha and also in his bilateral talks with the CPM general secretary Prakash Karat that India's interests on nuclear experiments and otherwise had not been sacrificed in any way in the treaties, the Left parties were not satisfied.

Karat had urged upon the Prime Minister to initiate fresh talks with the Bush administration on the whole issue and not only on the 123 and the Hyde Act.

He made it clear to the Prime Minister that they would not accept the UPA's proposal to formally approve the deal in Parliament. Instead, they would insist that "certain disputed clauses in the Bill be amended and then replaced in the House for discussions."

Otherwise, they would stage a walkout from the House along with the BJP and other parties, stating that the deal was not acceptable to them, Karat told the Prime Minister.

It is learnt that external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee had been asked by Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister to hold further talks with the Left parties and, if necessary, re-draft certain clauses of the Bill so that the present impasse be resolved.

Mukherjee had expressed the hope that the Left parties could ultimately be convinced and they would accept the nuclear Bill in the Lok Sabha since the deal was in the interest of the country.

The BJP, however, wanted a detailed debate on the deal and then the bill be placed for voting, obviously, to record the Left parties stand on the deal as the BJP leaders were convinced that "the CPM would only bark but would never withdraw support".

After the Prime Minister's public threat to the Left, a section in the politburo and other parties wanted that they should also "rebuff" the UPA with a similar threat.

But leaders like Jyoti Basu, Sitaram Yechuri, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Biman Bose were still strongly opposed to the decision of withdrawal of support from the government.

Basu felt it would be a disastrous step. Instead, he wanted the Left to launch a larger pressure on the government on the nuclear deal and all other vital issues and force them to abandon their unacceptable decisions.

But Basu is not going to the capital to attend the meeting.

Picture getting clear: Japan

New Delhi, August 15
With India and the US finalising the civil nuclear deal, Japan said the “picture” was becoming “clear” to it but it preferred a wait-and-watch approach till New Delhi negotiates the Safeguards Agreement with IAEA.

Lauding India's track record on non-proliferation, Japan said it had been a “good boy” despite remaining outside the NPT regime but New Delhi should shoulder the responsibility to strengthen the NPT regime. “Basically, this matter is still under careful scrutiny and we are being briefed by the US and India to tell us precisely what happened,” Japanese Ambassador Yasukuni Enoki told PTI in an interview here. — IANS