New Delhi, December 9
Firing a fresh salvo at the government on the nuclear deal with the USA, the CPM has asked it to end the talks with the IAEA this month or get ready for elections.
CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said at a meeting of the party’s Delhi unit that the government would be told not to go ahead with the deal after its officials come back from the IAEA talks.
“When they return after talks, we will tell them that there is no need to proceed further. The issue must be resolved by the end of December... If they go ahead then we will have to prepare for elections,” Karat said.
The CPM leader’s remarks have come days after the Left joined the BJP and the UNPA in opposing the nuclear deal in Parliament and insisted that the majority in both Houses was against the operationalisation of the deal.
The remarks also conveyed the impression that the Left was unlikely to allow the government to proceed beyond the talks stage at the IAEA in the multi-layered process involving the deal.
Karat’s remarks are seen to be a deadline for the government, which had to work for months to convince the Left parties to allow it to proceed with the talks at the IAEA. The government gave an assurance that no document would be signed before it was discussed at the Left-UPA meeting.
Karat also said the Left parties did not want the government to fall before the Gujarat Assembly elections lest the BJP benefited from it. “We want the BJP to be defeated. The Modi government needs to be removed, so we did not want the government to be disturbed,” he said.
Though the government has been hopeful of solving differences over the deal, the Left parties have been warning the government against operationalising the deal.
As the CPM set a fresh deadline for the government on the nuclear deal, the CPI said the findings of the UPA-Left committee would prevail.
Party leader D Raja said the government has agreed to get back to the comittee on its talks for safegaurds agreement with the IAEA and not to finalise any decision.
The deadline has come even as the officials are expected to begin the second round of talks with the IAEA at Vienna this week.
