Karat's red card on IAEA talks
The Left’s pull-out from the ruling side on Monday night looked a mere formality after CPM general secretary Prakash Karat rejected the government’s plan to begin formal negotiations with the IAEA.
By TNN |
NEW DELHI: The Left’s pull-out from the ruling side on Monday night looked a mere formality after CPM general secretary Prakash Karat rejected the government’s plan to begin formal negotiations with the IAEA on the India-specific safeguards. Mr Karat, who met Congress president Sonia Gandhi late this evening, said such a course was not acceptable to the Left.
Ms Gandhi told Mr Karat that negotiations on the deal cannot wait any longer. According to sources, the Congress promised the Left that the government will only begin talks with IAEA and that the Left parties would be consulted before inking the final agreement. But it was met with a firm "no" from Mr Karat.
Ms Gandhi told Mr Karat that negotiations on the deal cannot wait any longer. According to sources, the Congress promised the Left that the government will only begin talks with IAEA and that the Left parties would be consulted before inking the final agreement. But it was met with a firm "no" from Mr Karat.
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At the meeting, Ms Gandhi is learnt to have told Mr Karat that the UPA-Left panel on the nuclear deal was not serving any useful purpose as it has failed to resolve contentious issues. In other words, the Congress is not keen on stretching the nuclear talks with the Left parties. It also signals a determination on the part of the government to begin negotiations with the IAEA in the third week of October.
CPM leaders here said that politburo, which is meeting on October 18, will decide on the modalities of the pull out. The CPM is also expected to discuss its line of action with parties like the SP.
That the alliance was heading for a collapse was visible earlier in the day when Left leaders retaliated against the rabbit punches delivered by Ms Gandhi on Sunday. In a statement, Mr Karat and other senior Left leaders told the Congress leadership that “we need not surrender our vital interests” on the “we-need-electricity” plea. “Those who advocate the deal should know that India is capable of developing nuclear energy primarily on a self-reliant basis,” the terse statement from the Left said.
In a “come and get us over the nuclear deal” address at Jhajjar in Haryana on Sunday, Ms Gandhi came close to suggesting that the nuclear deal may prove a fertile turf to force an election.
The Congress president, who branded the critics of the deal as an “anti-development mob” exhorted people to give a befitting reply to those attacking the nuclear agreement. The tone of the address was unambiguous: no more compromising the government’s agenda and no more catering to other political interests for the sake of running the government.
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As expected, the Left attempted to use this speech of Ms Gandhi to blame the Congress for provoking an early election. The Congress, which had so far managed to paint the Left as an unreasonable lot, was finding itself in a difficult corner. There were efforts by the Congress to repair the damage even before Delhi’s political parlours could appreciate Ms Gandhi’s latest steeliness by claiming that the “nuclear deal speech” was only for the Haryana audience. But there was acknowledgement in the ruling side that the address gave the Left an opportunity to blame the Congress for pulling the trigger.
CPM politburo member Jyoti Basu, whom the Congress likes to put in the pragmatists’ column, too joined the attack on Ms Gandhi for her defence of the controversial nuclear deal. “She should not have made such a speech,” Mr Basu told reporters in Kolkata.
Mr Basu aided the efforts of his party general secretary to put the blame of the conflict on the Congress when he said his party was prepared to give a patient hearing to Congress interlocutor Pranab Mukherjee. Mr Basu said he had advised Mr Karat and Mr Sitaram Yechury to hear out the “compromise formula” from the Congress. “But the Congress is talking about election. Our party is prepared to face polls,” Mr Basu said.
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