The Left parties and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) will meet again on October 9 to further discuss and sort out the differences over the proposed Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
New Delhi, Oct 5 : The Left parties and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) will meet again on October 9 to further discuss and sort out the differences over the proposed Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said this after the third meeting of the 15-member UPA-Left panel set up to break the deadlock over the bilateral nuclear deal.
The Left parties have the impression that the government would not go ahead with operationalisation of the deal till the committee completes its discussions, orward Bloc leader Debabrata Biswas, said.
Left is also keeping a close watch on the government's plans during the visit of IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to New Delhi next week. Though it is expected that some informal talks on the nuclear deal may happen, the Left has warned against any move to formalise negotiations.
Earlier, Mukherjee had expressed hope that the deadlock over the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal would be broken at the October 5 meeting.
Senior CPI leader A B Bardhan has already said that they are not in a hurry about the outcome of the talks.
The UPA-Left committee set up to resolve the differences over the nuclear deal held its second first meeting on September 11, with the members outlining the agenda for the discussion. The committee framed the issue following broad issues for discussion, implications of the Hyde Act on Indo-nuclear 123 Agreement and on the self-reliance in the nuclear sector, implications on foreign policy and security cooperation.
The 15-member panel, which is headed by Mukherjee, comprises of Union Cabinet Ministers, A K Antony, P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Saifuddin Soz, Prithviraj Chavan, Lalu Prasad, T R Baalu and Sharad Pawar; and six Left leaders Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, A B Bardhan, D Raja, Debabrata Biswas and T J Chandrachoodan.
The panel was named after Left, which provides crucial support to the UPA Government, rejected the bilateral nuclear deal with the US, and warned the Government of serious consequences if it went ahead with operationalising the Agreement.
The Government had said that the agreement would be operationalised after taking into account the committee's findings.
ANI