Tell us N-deal is off or put on hold: Left to Govt

New Delhi: Mounting pressure on the UPA Government, the Left parties asked it to declare that the Indo-US nuclear deal is ‘off’ when the UPA-Left committee meets on Monday.

Making it clear that they are not going to wait ‘indefinitely’, the Left parties said a clear-cut response from the Government was essential to ‘end the controversy’ on the agreement.

”We do not know what exactly the UPA representatives will tell us. But what we expect is that they should clearly say that the deal is off or that it has been put on hold. Only then the controversy will end," CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said.

The comments came amid mixed signals from the Centre on the accord.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asserted last week that his was not ‘a one issue government’, saying that failure of the deal would not be ‘the end of life’.

However, on Thursday, Singh said that he was still hopeful on the deal and reconciliation efforts were underway.

Bardhan said the Government as also the UPA allies have taken cognizance of the Left stand that the deal should not be operationalised till all their concerns are adequately allayed.

Left wants House debate

The UPA Government may have virtually put the Indo-US nuclear deal on hold, but the Left continues to insist on a Parliamentary debate on the same.

CPI-M sources have told CNN-IBN that there has been no formal communication from the Government as yet on the decision to pause the nuclear deal.

CPM's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Mohammmad Salim, further added that the Left parties would wait for the Government's official confirmation till October 22.

They said it, however, appears to be the case from the statements made by the Prime Minister in Abuja, Nigeria.

Talking to US President George W Bush from Abuja, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told him that there were difficulties in going ahead with the deal. Even Congress president Sonia Gandhi told the HT Summit over the weekend that her party has taken a political decision to save the Government.

The CPM, however, said it is for the UPA to decide whether or not the Government will continue with the Left-UPA nuclear panel meetings. The party, though, will insist on a debate on the issue in the Winter Session of Parliament.