No mid-term polls, say Singh, Sonia

Talks on nuclear agreement halted.

After two months of uncertainty, the threat of mid-term elections appeared to recede today as the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and the Congress party acknowledged that they had decided to halt negotiations on the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement.

Strong indications of this emerged from statements by both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

"The elections are still far away and the government has one-and-a-half years to complete," Manmohan Singh said in reply to questions. 

On the nuclear agreement, he said: "One has to live with certain disappointments. We are not a one-issue government. The deal not coming through is not the end of life." 
 

If the deal does not come through, that is not the end of life. But we are trying to reconcile the divergent points of view. I have not given up hope.
Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister

No, we are not in favour of early elections. As the Prime Minister has said the deadline is 2009. We are going to do all that we can to see that we implement our programmes till 2009. 
Sonia Gandhi
Congress President

I expect to present the budget...It will be a budget that will continue the efforts we made in the last four budgets. There is no reason to change course.
P Chidambaram
Finance Minister

This is a sober position compared to what it was earlier. Whether it means any change in the attitude will only become clear during the discussion of our joint committee.
AB Bardhan
General Secretary, CPI, on the PM's statement on the
Indo-US civil nuclear agreement

Adding her voice to the prime minister's, Gandhi said: "We are not in favour of early elections. As the Prime Minister has said the deadline is 2009. We are going to do all that we can to see that we implement our programmes till 2009."

Both Singh and Gandhi, however, emphasised that the government was trying to reconcile the divergent points of view.

"I have not given up hope. Reason and common sense will ultimately win the day; we are, after all, in the realm of politics," Singh said, adding "the nuclear agreement is an honourable deal that is good for India and good for the world".

"Confrontation is not coalition dharma," Gandhi added.

Mid-term elections seemed imminent after the four Left parties, which extend support to the UPA in Parliament, had threatened the government with "serious consequences" in August if it operationalised the nuclear deal.

The deal, approved by the US Congress in June, allows India to enter the nuclear commerce market despite having tested nuclear weapons. But the Left has contended that the deal curtails India's sovereignty.

A15-member UPA-Left committee is currently discussing this issue but has made little headway. The next meeting is scheduled for October 22.

Asked if he would step down if the Left did not agree to the nuclear deal, Singh quipped: "It is a suggestion for action."

But he concluded, "We have to survive small battles to build a modern country."

Meanwhile, in another indicator that the government was not contemplating early elections, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, said: "I expect to present the budget...It will be a budget which will continue the efforts we made in the last four budgets." He was speaking at the same forum.