By IANS
New Delhi : The findings of the 15-member United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-Left committee on the India-US nuclear deal will be binding on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government, the Communist Party of India (CPI) said Thursday.
Dismissing Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal’s remarks that the government would not be bound to accept the views expressed by the Left representatives in the committee, CPI national secretary D. Raja said the government would have to take into account the communist concerns before the deal is operationalised.
“It is a committee formed by the UPA. So its government is bound by the committee’s views,” Raja told reporters when queried about Sibal’s remarks.
“If it is not binding then what is it for? To have a cup of tea?” Raja’s party colleague Gurudas Dasgupta asked.
“It is not very nice to have a cup of tea with Sibal always,” he said, adding the minister’s comments were an “over-smart statement of a new parliamentarian who does not know the chemistry of coalition politics”.
Meanwhile, government sources indicated that the first meeting of the UPA-Left committee, formed to look into the concerns expressed by the Left over the nuclear agreement, might take place before Sep 14, when Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar goes to Vienna to attend an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting.
“The first sitting is possible between Sep 9 and 13 and another meeting could take place after Sep 14 before the foreign minister (Pranab Mukherjee) leaves for UN General Assembly meeting,” said an informed source.
The committee is likely to meet Kakodkar before he leaves for Vienna.