Cong snubs Left as it sets July 7 nuke deadline

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Congress on Friday sought to reject the deadline set by the Left parties to the UPA government to clarify on whether it was going ahead on the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Sovereign governments or political parties cannot be subjected to deadlines, Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters minutes after the Left parties set a July 7 deadline for the government to clarify its position on approaching the IAEA for the safeguards agreement.

"We are working towards triple objectives -- to do a nuclear deal in national interest, to carry along our allies with us for that purpose and to go to elections as per the Constitutional schedule," he said.

Rejecting suggestions of an "unholy alliance", Singhvi said, "Samajwadi Party and the Congress have never been mutually untouchable in the same sense as the Left and the BJP or the Congress and the BJP."

Singhvi said the Congress had not changed its stand on the nuclear deal "by even one millimetre".

"We believe that the nuclear deal is in national interest and are happy that other parties in the national interest are slowly converging to our view point," he said.

Asked whether the bonhomie with the Samajwadi Party would extend to Uttar Pradesh, he said, "I need to emphasise that the current contextual developments were at the national level. I have said nothing at the regional level."

"However, once cooperation and convergence starts at the national level, it is not unnatural of it to assume wider proportions subsuming regional levels also," Singhvi said.

Left parties said that the government must tell them by July 7 if it plans to press ahead with the next step in a controversial civilian nuclear deal with the United States, which they strongly oppose.

The Left parties have threatened to withdraw support for the government if it seeks approval for the deal from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the next international move needed to operationalise the pact.

"We wish to know definitely whether the government is proceeding to seek the approval of the safeguards agreement by the board of governors of the IAEA," said Prakash Karat, CPI (M) General Secretary, reading out a letter addressed to the government.

The party said it would launch a national campaign from July 14 to explain its opposition to the nuclear deal and what it called "runaway" inflation.