CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat on Friday asserted that the crisis caused in its relations with the Congress-led UPA government over the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal would be resolved soon.
Agreeing that the government faced a timeframe to seal the deal and a date before the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA), Karat said, ?Give us some time.? He pointed out that the negotiation of the 123 Agreement itself had taken over two years and the CPI(M) has hardly spent a few months.
Karat hinted that the November 16 meet of the UPA-Left joint committee would be vital, but the party is ready to continue discussions even beyond that till a solution is found. ?The committee has met for five times. The sixth meeting is scheduled on 16th November,? he told a press conference at the CPI(M)?s Alimuddin Street headquarters. ?We are hopeful that we will be able to do something in that meeting… We are prepared to spend as much time as necessary because we consider this a vital matter and we would like to resolve this issue,? ? he added.
?Our effort is now to see that this committee comes to some conclusion. The Left parties are all in that committee. We are working together,? he said, stressing that the goal would be to ?resolve the issue?.
Karat also said the Left would like a discussion in Parliament, which has been convened from November 15. ?We would like to see the views of the members. We are not insisting on voting resolution?it can be a non-voting resolution,? Karat said. ?We wanted this discussion earlier but it was not possible. We have an opportunity to examine the views of the Parliament,? he said. ?Our party stand is known. I won?t have to re-iterate it once again,? he said.
The CPI(M) does not feel it necessary to discuss the issue with the BJP, Karat said. ?Their stand is to renegotiate the deal. They have not said officially that they are changing their stand,? he stated. The stressed that he had never talked about withdrawal of support to the UPA government. The point is that a committee was set up, and when we issued a joint statement with the UPA it was understood?it was said?that the government will operationalise the deal taking into account the findings of the committee,? said the CPI(M) general secretary.