Walk the withdrawal talk: BJP to Left

The Left parties persistent opposition to the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal has led to the BJP asking the former to act on their withdrawal threat, and criticised it for continuing shadow boxing with the Congress-led UPA government.

New Delhi, Aug 18 : The Left parties' persistent opposition to the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal has led to the BJP asking the former to act on their 'withdrawal' threat, and criticised it for continuing 'shadow boxing' with the Congress-led UPA government.

"Time has finally come when the Left Front parties with complete honesty would need to walk the talk and match words with actions," BJP President Rajnath Singh said on a day when CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat reiterated that the deal is 'unacceptable' to the Left parties.

In a bid to enlarge the 'anti- nuke deal' group in the Parliament, the BJP president urged the Left to "go beyond ideological differences" and join hands on "issues of national importance" and vote against the government on the nuclear deal issue.

"If the Left Front parties honestly and genuinely believed that the Indo-US nuclear deal was not in the interest of the nation, then a time had come for all parties to go beyond ideological differences and display solidarity against the government on issues of national importance by taking the matter to its logical end," Singh added.

The BJP had earlier demanded debate on the nuclear deal in Parliament under Rule 184 that entails voting, but the Left parties called for a debate under Rule 193 that does not entail voting.

However, BJP's demand for voting after the debate has been rejected and the discussion is most likely to take place on Monday under Rule 193.

ANI