By IANS
Kolkata : Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat reiterated Friday that the Left wanted a discussion on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal in the upcoming winter session of parliament.
“We would like to discuss the issue in the session that will start Nov 15. In the last session it was not possible. The main thing is to have the parliament discuss the agreement so that we get an opportunity to participate in the discussion,” Karat told reporters at the CPI-M state headquarters here.
He said the 15-member United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-Left committee had been formed to come to a conclusion about the pact. The next and sixth meeting of the committee is scheduled on Nov 16.
“We are in the committee and our effort is to solve the matter. We have talked about nuclear issues to have a common stand. We have met all the partners and all political parties that have representation in parliament,” he said.
“Now that a committee has been set up, the government should operationalise the deal taking into account the committee’s decision,” he said.
“You have to wait till the 16th of this month. We are hopeful that we would do something in that meeting,” the CPI-M leader added.
The UPA, which had been warned by the Left of serious consequences if it went ahead with the deal, had assured that the operationalisation of the agreement would take the committee’s findings into account.
Karat last week was seen to have considerably softened his stance towards the government when he told a newspaper that he appreciated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “unquestioned integrity” over the pact.
He also said there was no reason why the UPA government could not complete its full term – reassuring words that came after the government came perilously close to falling over the differences between the Left and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) on the deal.