Hyderabad, September 15
The Left parties would set a “time frame” for the government to complete evaluation of their concerns over the Indo-US nuclear deal and implications of the Hyde Act, Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat said in Hyderabad on Saturday.

Stating that the first meeting the United Progressive Alliance-Left committee on September 11, 2007 identified the agenda for discussions at the next meeting on September 19, he said the real work was yet to start.

“We will discuss the identified issues in the next meeting and a time frame can be decided then,” Karat told reporters.

He also hoped that the UPA government would “reconsider all the issues” which the Left parties planned to raise during the meetings.

Karat said the Left had asked the government not to operationalise the agreement till all the objections and implications of the Hyde Act were properly evaluated.

“We want the committee to look into all the aspects. We hope that after the discussions, there will be clarity about the implications of the deal over our foreign policy and security,” he said.

“Let us see what comes out of the meeting,” he added.

The CPM leader declined to comment on the possibility of early polls. “I cannot answer that question. I do not know. All I can say is that we want the committee to look into all aspects and implications of the deal.

“A majority of the parties are opposed to the deal. They all agree that India should not proceed with the agreement,” he said. But he evaded a direct reply to the query whether the Left would talk to AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa who had a similar stand on the nuclear deal.

Karat, in Hyderabad to attend the State executive meeting of his party, said the CPM would continue its ‘bhuporatam’ or land agitation in the State till the government distributed all surplus land among the poor. — IANS