Left, PM meet fails to break nuke deal logjam

Bush calls up prime minister, discusses fate of the deal.

The breakfast meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat failed to resolve the differences over the Indo-US nuclear deal. The matter has been put off until Karat takes it to the Politburo.

This comes as US President George W Bush spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and discussed the status of the deal. Bush and Singh also reviewed other aspects of the bilateral relations, an external affairs ministry statement said.

Sources said Bush also enquired about the gravity of the threat posed by the Left stand on the deal. The US president was concerned whether the Left parties could go to the extent of withdrawing support to his government on the issue.

At the morning meeting, the prime minister repeated most of the points he made in Parliament yesterday. After listening to him, Karat said there was no reason for the Left to change its views.

"Our resentment will continue. We are demanding that the government not implement this deal. It is for them to take a call," said CPI General Secretary AB Bardhan.

The central element of the government's argument was that the deal should be allowed to be unfolded in its entirety and then judged. Only after clearances have been given by the IAEA, the NSG and the US Congress will the gains be visible, the prime minister is reported to have told Karat.

However, the Left parties are clear that they do not want the government to walk down this road at all. This, sources say, has upset the prime minister, who believes there was no need for the Left to see the text of the agreement to veto it. He feels if this is the Left's ideological position, the veto could have come a year ago.

After the meeting, the PMO issued a statement that the two sides reiterated a resolve to find a solution to the problem and efforts were on to defuse the tension. As part of this effort, Mukherjee spoke to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who is reported to have said that the CPI(M)'s stand was principled.

"As long as the government runs, problems will be there," Mukherjee told Business Standard. Congress managers are scurrying to make calls to every possible opinion-maker in the CPI(M).

Meanwhile, a witch-hunt has begun in the Congress to find who advised the prime minister to talk to the Left parties in a defiant tone, asking them to "like it or lump it". There is a feeling the prime minister was set up to confront the Left. This makes it clear there is some panic in the Congress.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi today threw her full weight behind Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the Indo-US nuclear deal. At a time the government has been facing fierce criticism from the Left, Gandhi "congratulated" the prime minister and his team for their "accomplishment" in concluding the deal.

In her address at the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting, days before Parliament takes up the deal for debate, Gandhi said, "The agreement fulfils all the assurances that the prime minister has given repeatedly in Parliament."