The Left parties on Thursday decided to go back to the government on Friday with their response to the terms of reference set by the UPA-Left mechanism on India-US nuclear agreement.
As a first step, the Left will tell the government their observations on the impact of Hyde Act on the deal.
The parties, which held a detailed discussion with a section of retired nuclear scientists here on Thursday evening, will also enlighten the government on “the possible impact of the deal on India’s indigenous nuclear programmes.”
The Left leaders said after the meeting that the note, to be given to the government, will reiterate their stated position on the Hyde Act. “We discussed the points on which we will prepare our note,” CPI general secretary AB Bardhan said after the meeting.Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas said the Left expected a reply to the note from the government by September 17.
“We will discuss the government reply and form our opinion for the next meeting (of the mechanism) on September 19,” Biswas added.
Meanwhile, Prakash Karat, in a seminar, said, “We won’t be there to help this government conclude this agreement.”
Asking the Prime Minister to be careful in choosing friends, Karat said all “greatest friends” of Bush such as Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and former British PM Tony Blair had to resign.
“Australian Prime Minister John Howard is going. Everybody knows about Pakistan and the condition of Bush’s favourite ally Pervez Musharraf. We don’t want our Prime Minister in that category,” Karat said in lighter vein.
