Stop N-deal talks or face polls, Karat tells govt

In a fresh ultimatum to the UPA government, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat has said the Left will ask the government to halt negotiations on the Indo-US nuclear deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by the end of December or "prepare for general elections."

"When they (officials) come back from talks with the IAEA, we will tell them (the government) there is no need to go ahead (with the deal). The issue must be resolved by the end of December. If they still go ahead, we will have to be prepared for a mid-term poll," Karat told the Delhi state CPI(M) meeting here yesterday.

He added the party did not want to disturb the current arrangement as the Congress was busy with the Gujarat polls.

"We don't want the BJP to benefit from the fall of the government (at the Centre) but we don't want them to carry on with the IAEA talks beyond December," he said.

However, CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury, in Bhavnagar while campaigning for Gujarat assembly elections, said the agenda was to stop the deal and not to destabilise the government. The deal had increased India's vulnerability to US pressures in various fields, particularly independent foreign policy, he added.

This is the first time the CPI(M), which along with other Left parties is strongly opposing the deal, has clearly set a deadline for the government and made it clear what the consequences will be if it goes ahead with the deal.

A taken-aback Congress tried to downplay the ultimatum. "Whatever is being negotiated is according to the understanding reached by the coordination committee of the Left and the UPA and after full engagement with the Left," said party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi.

Sources in the Prime Minister's Office, however, confirmed they were expecting something like this. "The IAEA agreement is a technical agreement for which a pro-forma, information circular 66, exists. There was always a question of what will happen next and December end was when we expected this," said a senior source.

Meanwhile, the BJP dared the Left to "show courage" and withdraw support to the government over the deal. "We don't trust the flexible fluidity of the Left. They lack the courage to withdraw support to the government because the looming fear of the BJP is more important to them than the apparent sellout to the US," BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said.