By IANS,
New Delhi : The Samajwadi Party’s apparent change of stance on the India-US civil nuclear agreement is an indication of its attempts to keep a distance from the Left and to isolate the communists over the contentious pact with Washington, say party sources.
Amar Singh, the powerful general secretary of Samajwadi Party, which now seems to be keen to get closer to its long-term bete noire Congress party, has publicly expressed its willingness to reconsider its opposition to the nuclear deal just two days after his outbursts against the Communist parties.
According to Singh, his party was not the “pichlaggu” (blind adherent) of the Left view on the nuclear issue and if the government was willing to place new facts before them, the party was willing to discuss it with the Congress-led government.
Congress sources said the Samajwadi Party, the main opposition in Uttar Pradesh, has already indicated that it wanted to mend ties with it. “The vendetta politics played by (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister) Mayawati has made them re-consider their approach to the Congress,” a Congress party leader told IANS on condition of anonymity.
At the same time, the differences between the Samajwadi Party and the Communists are intensifying. Hitting out at the Left parties earlier this week, Amar Singh alleged that the Communists did not reciprocate his party’s gestures towards it and that the Left had been changing policies as per their convenience. The Samajwadi Party has also expressed its “hurt” over the Left party’s support to the Women’s Reservation bill in its present form.
Although a telephone call from Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat to the Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav forced Amar Singh to retract his outbursts against the Left, the gap between the two is widening, admitted party sources.
“There is nothing wrong in reviewing our stand on the nuclear issue if the government convinces us that the deal is good for India. We will discuss it in the party meeting,” said a senior Samajwadi party leader, who did not want to be identified. He said senior leaders of the party would meet Monday to discuss the party’s immediate future strategies.
While the Left was opposing the nuclear deal alleging that it would make New Delhi a junior strategic ally to the US, the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has has opposed it on the ground that it would take away India’s right to conduct further nuclear tests and erode its “strategic autonomy”.