By IANS
New Delhi : External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Saturday said the government would hold further talks with the Left on the India-US nuclear deal.
“We have already held discussions with them (Left leaders). We will hold more discussions with them,” Mukherjee told reporters on the sidelines of a lecture on India-Africa relations.
He was responding to a question on whether the government was confident of getting the Left’s support for the nuclear deal.
He did not say when the next round of discussions with Left would take place.
Rejecting the recently concluded 123 India-US nuclear cooperation pact, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left parties warned of “serious consequences” if the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government went ahead with the deal.
Mukherjee’s comments came on a day Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the Left bluntly that the nuclear deal couldn’t be re-negotiated.
“It is a honourable deal, the cabinet has approved it, we cannot go back on it. I told them to do whatever they want to do, if they want to withdraw support, so be it…” Manmohan Singh told The Telegraph newspaper.
The prime minister will make a statement on the deal Monday in parliament. This will be followed by a debate on Tuesday and Thursday – before and after the Indian independence day.