Buoyed by the less strident position adopted by the Left parties on the Indo-US Civil Nuclear deal, the Congress is likely to convene a crucial meeting of UPA-Left coordination committee on Monday.
The proposed meeting is intended to allay fear of the Left parties on the deal at a political level, where Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will play a crucial role. She will try to convince the supporting front not to precipitate the ongoing crisis. In her effort, she has unflinching support from the other UPA constituents, particularly DMK chief and Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi.
On an earlier occasion, Karunanidhi had hinted that his party supported the Centre on the nuclear deal. ?We will march on the same road, we are proceeding now. I hope others will also do the same,? he said. Similarly, others in the coalition?RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and LJP chief Ramvilas Paswan? have also lent their unconditional backing to the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi on the issue. The Left said there would be no crisis for the government if it allayed apprehensions expressed on the draft 123 agreement in the context of the Hyde Act.
The core group of the Congress has already discussed the situation after CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury briefed the Prime Minister on his party?s resolution, which said it did not want the current crisis to affect the government, though it was ?contingent upon the government not to proceed further with the agreement?.
Yechury also held a series of meetings during last week, including with Gandhi and external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee. Moreover, CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat has also held discussions with his CPI counterpart A B Bardhan and secretary D Raja and briefed them about his party?s Central Committee?s endorsement of the Politburo decision that the government should not operationalise the deal, failing which it would face ?serious consequences?.
Meanwhile, speaking in Chennai on Sunday Mukherjee said that the Congress was holding discussions with all its allies including the Left parties on the standoff. ?I cannot discuss any progress with Left parties, since Parliament is in session. The whole issue will be debated fully in Parliament,? he said.
