Reiterating its warning to the UPA Government that the Left alliance would withdraw support if the government went ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) today asked the Centre not to operationalise the deal for six months.
New Delhi, Sept 18 : Reiterating its warning to the UPA Government that the Left alliance would withdraw support if the government went ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) today asked the Centre not to operationalise the deal for six months.
Addressing a protest rally here, CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat said that the government should not move ahead on the agreement.
"When the deal is being opposed in the entire country, when majority of the Parliament is opposing the deal, then, in democracy, the government should listen to the Parliament," said Karat.
He said that the country would face a political crisis if the government did not hold the deal back for at least six months.
"We only want them to stop for six months. In next six months, discussion can be held in this matter during the next session of the Parliament," he said.
Karat went on to say that people from different walks of life, including scientists and intellectuals, can voice their concerns in the debate, "and then the solution of the problem can be found out."
"Otherwise, the country will face political crisis, which we don't want," he warned.
Karat's statement is in contrast to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who on Monday favoured experts' opinion that nuclear power is inevitable.
Bhattacharjee said that he would go by experts' opinion that nuclear power is inevitable for a growing economy like India to meet its galloping energy needs.
With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh unlikely to backtrack over the nuclear deal, he may have to choose between continuing as the head of a minority government or calling elections before his term ends in May 2009.
India has 12 nuclear plants that produce 2,770 Mega Watts nuclear energy, which constitute only 2.5 percent of the country's installed generation capacity of about 100,000 MW.
The 15-member UPA-Left panel has been set up to review the Indo-US nuclear deal. It held its first meeting on September 11 with the members outlining the agenda for the discussion. The committee will hold its next meeting on September 19.
The panel 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 the 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 will be operationalised after taking into account the committee's findings.
ANI