Reconciliation moves to try and find a way out of the stalemate on the nuclear deal were taken up with renewed vigour by UPA and Left managers on Monday after recent aggressive posturing by both sides, especially Sonia Gandhi’s sharp remarks at a rally in Jajjhar on Sunday raised political temperatures, heightening worries that mid-term polls would become inevitable.
An unscheduled visit by Gandhi to the Rashtrapati Bhawan this afternoon, coupled by a move by the Election Commission asking election officers of all states to get election rolls ready by mid-January next year further fuelled such apprehensions, even resulting in the sensex falling almost 300 points. The two sides are to meet on Tuesday for the fourth round of talks on the nuclear agreement.
Using strong language at the rally, Gandhi had said that those opposing the deal were not only against the Congress but against progress and development. She also said that the Congress was ready to face mid-term polls. Responding to her remarks, Left parties on Monday issued a joint statement reiterating that the nuclear deal is against the interests of the country.
??Those who advocate the deal should know that India is capable of developing nuclear energy primarily on a self-reliant basis. We need not surrender our vital interests to America on this plea,?? the statement said.
At the same time, however, the Left sought to emphasise that they never talked of an early poll and said that it is up to the government to take a final decision on the Indo-US nuclear agreement. CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu said in Kolkata that it would not be wise to go for elections and hoped that a compromise formula would be worked out between the Left and the government. Basu had held discussions with external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee on the issue on Sunday. ??He (Mukherjee) expressed his desire that it (UPA-Left committee on nuclear deal) does not break up. But how it will be possible, I do not know,?? Basu said.
??I have spoken to Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury after the meeting with Pranab Mukherjee. I told them to listen to what he had to say, to see if it is possible to work out a compromise,?? he told reporters at Kolkata.
Refering to Sonia Gandhi’s speech at Haryana, he alleged that the Congress is forcing an election. “She (Sonia Gandhi) is now talking of elections and collapse of the government. If elections are forced on us, we are ready for it. But we do not favour an election at the moment,” Basu said. “I believe we should jointly work for at least sometime now that the communal forces are regrouping in some places and gearing up in other states,” he said. “We are hoping whether we (the Left and the UPA) can stay together for some more time. But we are ready if there are elections. What they (the Centre) will do I do not know”, he said. “It is not wise to go for polls,” he said. “Pranab told me that the government would go to the IAEA and explain the concerns raised by the partners (the Left parties). This is not final. I do not know whether my party would accept it”, Basu said.
Sources in the CPI(M) told FE that in the next meeting of the politburo of the party, scheduled on October 18, will take a final decision on mid-term poll. “The central committee has entrusted us to take an appropriate decision in the wake of government going to the IAEA to launch India specific safeguard negotiations. By the next two meetings of the Left-UPA committee, I think the picture will be clear, a senior politburo member said.
The Congress too attempted to downplay Ms Gandhi’s remarks, contending that she had spoken only in the context of Haryana and refuted the allies’ charge that the UPA was surrendering vital national interests to the US. “Whatever she had said was in the context of Haryana and there is no need for seeing it in the national context,” Congress spokesman Satyavrat Chaturvedi told PTI.