Peace only if N-deal is stalled: CPI

NEW DELHI: It is far too soon to talk about a thaw in the Left’s relations with the Manmohan Singh government. The CPI’s national council, which sent out this message, made it amply clear that the Left-UPA amity continues to be vulnerable to the Indo-US nuclear deal.

CPI’s apex decision-making body that met here over the weekend to take stock of the political developments, endorsed the leadership’s tough stand of the Left against the nuclear deal. “The deal is against national interest,” the party national council said.

CPI general secretary A B Bardhan, who echoed the prime minister’s consensus call at a media interaction here, said a settlement on the issue was possible if the government agrees to toe the Left line.

With the Winter Session beginning on November 15, the CPI has begun efforts to rope in more political parties to join the anti-deal bandwagon. Mr Bardhan, who expressed the hope that the BJP would participate in the debate, met Union minister and NCP leader Sharad Pawar on Thursday night.

At meetings of the UPA-Left coordination panel, Mr Pawar had expressed reservations about elections at this juncture — a possibility in the event of the government going ahead with the deal.

The NCP also participated in the CPI’s farmers rally here and supported the demands made by the Left. Support from a partner within the UPA on the nuclear deal issue would strengthen the Left’s case further.

The Left already has the backing of the UNPA which would mean around 100 non-BJP MPs opposing the deal when it is debated in Lok Sabha. “CPI and other Left parties insist that as a democratic country the matter should be debated in Parliament and the sense of the House should be taken into account by government,” Mr Bardhan said.

To a question what step Left would take after the November 16 meeting of the panel which is expected to finalise the “findings”, Mr Bardhan said it depended on the government’s response.

Ridiculing Washington for “rushing” its officials to New Delhi to put pressure on the government and the BJP to go ahead with the deal, the CPI leader said “never have I seen such high officials descending on the country to persuade.”

Sometimes there are allurements, sometime threats and sometime blackmail,” he said. Mr Bardhan said this was an indication that the deal “was more in their (US) interest than India’s.”