By IANS
New Delhi : After two days of verbally jousting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the India-US civil nuclear deal, the Left was silent in the Lok Sabha Monday and has also decided against backing the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the issue in parliament.
BJP leader L.K. Advani tried to draw in the Left to supporting its move for a vote on the issue when it is discussed in parliament on Tuesday and Thursday, but his efforts were unsuccessful.
According to Left sources, Advani telephoned Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat Monday seeking the Left’s support for securing a vote on the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.
However, Karat refused to back the BJP move, indicating the Left’s willingness not to blow up the issue for the time being in the parliament.
Left sources said they did not join the opposition attack in parliament Monday as they did not want to be seen as part of the BJP, which is opposing Manmohan Singh.
They say their opposition is different from the BJP’s and they are opposed to ties with the US.
Left sources also indicated that their leaders hoped to resolve the present stalemate through discussions.
In parliament, the Left MPs staged a walk out while Manmohan Singh was at the end of his statement on the deal to register their protest.
Amid shouting and sloganeering from the Samajwadi Party and the BJP, Manmohan Singh defended the deal, which the Left has rejected citing its disapproval of India’s increasing proximity to Washington. However, the Left MPs did not join the din and sat quietly in the Lok Sabha.
They stood up when Manmohan Singh had almost completed his speech and then walked out of the house declaring that they were not “convinced”.
In the morning when the Lok Sabha met, the Left MPs did not join in the uproar of the BJP and Samajwadi Party MPs. The house witnessed two quick adjournments after the acrimonious scenes.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechury said the Left leaders would meet the prime minister over the nuclear deal.
Manmohan Singh has dared the Left to withdraw support if they could not back the nuclear deal. Reacting to this, CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat had said it was the Congress party’s “responsibility to remain in power”.
However, the Left has said that while there have been differences with the UPA, the integrity of the government had never been in question.
Monday’s was the prime minister’s first statement after the clinching of the 123 pact that lays down the technical details for implementing the India-US nuclear deal.