Left lobs ball in Cong court: Dump N-deal

The crisis gripping the Centre has reached flashpoint. Prakash Karat, who received the unanimous backing of the CPM central committee for his tough line against the Centre on Thursday, said the future of the Manmohan Singh regime is contingent upon the government’s willingness to put the Indo-US nuclear agreement on hold.

He also said it is for the Congress leadership to take a call on the Left’s “choose-between-the-deal-or-government” stand. “If the Centre decides to operationalise the agreement, the responsibility for its future will lie on the government,” Mr Karat said while addressing a press conference here. The CPM leader, who appears to have concluded that a compromise on the nuclear agreement is political suicide for his party, made it clear the Centre will have to blink to save the government.

Mr Karat reminded the Congress that there is no scope for unilateralism in the present arrangement as the Congress does not have a majority of its own. “It is incumbent on the government, which commands a majority in Parliament only with the support of the Left parties, to heed the voices of opposition,” he said. C PM, which put the onus of running the government on Congress, said it will not take any extreme step as long as the government does not proceed with the next step on the nuclear deal.

“We are in no hurry and it is for the Congress leadership to respond,” he said. But, the Congress has barely a week to decide on the issue as the Lok Sabha is expected to discuss the nuclear deal on August 29. Mr Karat has already threatened that the Left will join other critics of the agreement to demonstrate the majority backing for their viewpoint. Given this backdrop, the government will have to explain its position on the issue during the debate in Parliament.

The Congress leadership, which was banking on its ‘friends’ from CPM’s West Bengal unit in the central committee to force a review of the politburo decision, has begun conceding that the situation has now become ‘delicate’. Ms Sonia Gandhi, who is returning from South Africa late on Thursday night, is expected to hold discussions with the Left leaders. But the Left’s stand of “no further negotiations on the nuclear deal” has left no room for compromise with the Indo-US agreement on the table.

Mr Karat has said the constitution of an expert group to examine the deal will not do. “There can be an expert mechanism after stalling the negotiations,” he said. With the survival of the government clearly hinging on an acceptance of the Left’s demand, there is apprehension in the Congress that the allies may now put pressure on the government to revisit its position on the nuclear agreement. Although they solidly backed Congress at the last meeting of the UPA, the allies are wary of facing an election immediately.

A section of the UPA that has been discussing a ‘Plan B’, continuing at the Centre as a minority government, in the event of the Left withdrawing support, are now not quite confident of the shape of things to come. Mr Karat, incidentally, ruled out the possibility of a minority government. “Where is the question of a minority government. It is running on our support,” he told reporters.

Source: ET