Nuke deal: PMO raises pitch in battle with Left

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has denied any knowledge of the "concessions" India got from the US on the civil nuclear agreement, putting the Congress-led UPA government on path of confrontation with the Left parties.

If anything, statements like the one by CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu that the Left was waiting to hear about the "concessions" before taking any decision on the future of the government have put the government's back up even further.

Union ministers have been saying the agreement is not between the UPA government and the United States but between the government of India and the government of the United States.

"If we do not treat it as such, and tell the US that we are hampered by objections from AK Gopalan Bhavan (the CPI-M headquarters), no government will negotiate with us for the next 20 years. They will tell us to first get the clearance of AK Gopalan Bhavan and then talk," said a top government negotiator.

PMO officials say Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is firm on the nuclear deal. "The prime minister is clear he wants the agreement. He sees it as a key that will open the doors of international cooperation for us," said a senior official in the PMO.

The PMO denied any knowledge of the concessions offered by the government to the Left. "We don't know of any such thing," said the official. "The mechanism set up between the UPA government and the Left exists to exchange views and resolve differences of opinion," added the official. "The Hyde Act is a domestic law of the United States, we cannot change it," he said. He added the 123 Agreement was cleared by the Cabinet, the Congress Working Committee and all UPA allies, and so they all were committed to it.

Reports from Kolkata about the Central Committee meeting of the CPI(M) suggested it was the Left parties who wanted to delay the final death-blow to the UPA government "" whether in the form of pulling out or voting against the government in the House.

Basu and other leaders from West Bengal are said to have argued at the committee meeting that destabilising the Union government ahead of the Gujarat elections will boost the BJP's chances countrywide.

Reports from the PMO, however, suggest that the prime minister favours an early election rather than letting the perception gain ground that the government is bound by the Left parties.