Left may make the going tough for Cong

NEW DELHI: A day after the PM formally brought up certain Indian concerns about the provisions in the Indo-US nuke deal with the US President, the Congress leadership is apprehensive over some recent moves by some leaders of the Left and the Opposition to explore a common cause in the forthcoming monsoon session of Parliament.

While President Bush’s assurance to Mr Singh that the US will not ‘shift the goal posts’ mid-way has come as a relief, the ruling party leaders are still keeping their fingers crossed as the US Congress is slated to begin the process of discussion & voting on the legislation around the same time when Parliament begins the monsoon session.

Apart from the usual hard-hitting CPM and CPI statements against the Indo-US deal (including a move to insist on Parliamentary nod for international treaties), what is making the Congress leadership jittery is the move of some leaders of the Left and Right to hold, though informally, a strategy session to corner the government on the floor of Parliament over the nuclear deal.

Though there is no official word about it, it is learnt that CPM’s Sitaram Yechury, former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha and former minister of state for external affairs Digvijay Singh held a meeting recently where they discussed the option of bringing a resolution in the RS, asking the government to reject the ‘objectionable conditions’ that the US House committees had incorporated in the deal.