The Hindu Business Line : CPI(M) sees no crisis for Govt

New Delhi, Aug. 24 The uncertainty over the longevity of the Manmohan Singh Government cleared on Friday with the CPI(M) saying it saw no crisis for the United Progressive Alliance Government. The party made it clear that on the Indo-US nuclear deal it was only for pressing the “pause” button and not the “eject or stop” button.

“I don’t see a crisis. Where was it and where has it gone,” the CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Mr Sitaram Yechury, told reporters while replying to questions on whether the crisis on the nuclear deal was over.

However, Mr Yechury maintained his party’s stand that the Government should not go ahead with and operationalise the deal as it was not in the national interest and demanded a “structured debate” in Parliament in which the Government should reply.

He suggested that there could be talks between the Left and the Congress once the UPA Chairperson, Ms Sonia Gandhi, returns from South Africa and her party deliberates on the response to the CPI(M) Central Committee resolution on the matter.

The CPI(M) General Secretary, Mr Prakash Karat, had announced on Thursday after the Central Committee meeting that the party did not want the crisis to affect the Government but had left it to the Government or the Congress party to respond to its demand.

“As long as the Government does not take the next step to operationalise the deal, it is fine,” Mr Karat had said.

Today, Mr Yechury emphasised that the Left wants other important issues like price rise, legislation for workers in unorganised sector and implementation of the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission and the Sachar Committee to be debated in Parliament along with the nuclear issue. “We don’t want the nuclear issue to hijack other important issues,” he said.

Mr Yechury said the Left parties should get an assurance from the Government that it was not proceeding further on the deal and made it clear that the assurance could be in any manner the Government wants. “We are not insisting that it should come on the floor of the House,” he said when asked whether they want the UPA Government to announce that it was not operationalising the deal during the debate in Parliament.