Left withdraws support

Parting ways

PM’s announcement on Monday on approaching IAEA soon on inking India-specific safeguards agreement was the trigger

Left sees no purpose in attending July 10 meeting of Left-UPA Committee

Ending weeks of speculation, the Left parties on Tuesday announced withdrawal of support to the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government over the latter’s move to push ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal.

“We have asked the President (Ms Pratibha Patil) for an appointment tomorrow morning so we can go and formally withdraw support,” the General Secretary of the CPI (M), Mr Prakash Karat, told presspersons here.

He said that the decision was made following the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh’s announcement on Monday that the Government would “very soon” be approaching the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for inking an India-specific safeguards agreement, which is a precursor for operationalising the Indo-US nuclear deal.

The CPI (M) along with three other Left constituents and an independent have 60 Members of Parliament and provide crucial outside support to the Congress-led UPA Government in the 543-member Lok Sabha. The Left’s withdrawal would technically reduce the Government to a minority, unless it is able to obtain support from other parties and demonstrate this through a vote of confidence in the Lower House.

The Foreign Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, said that the Government will seek a confidence vote before August 11 – the scheduled date of commencement of the monsoon session of Parliament. He further stated that the Government will not proceed to the IAEA till it wins the trust vote, for which a special session may be called “as soon as we receive formal communication from the President”.

The coming days are likely to see hectic political activity, with the ruling alliance trying to muster up the numbers to make up for the loss of its erstwhile Left allies. For now, the 39-member Samajwadi Party (SP), which till recently was at loggerheads with the Congress, has promised to save the Government in the event of a floor test.

Besides the SP, the UPA, which currently has a combined strength of around 225 MPs, is also looking to win over smaller parties to reach the magic 272-plus figure. They include the Janata Dal-Secular, Rashtriya Lok Dal, Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the National Conference, which have between two and three members each.

Earlier, Mr Karat charged the UPA Government with not making available the text of the safeguards agreement negotiated with the IAEA Secretariat to the UPA-Left Committee that had been constituted to iron out differences between the two sides over the nuclear deal. The Committee was slated to meet on July 10 to “finalise its findings”.

Since the Committee members have not seen the text and in the meanwhile the Prime Minister has already announced the Government’s intention to go to the IAEA, “no purpose will be served by having a meeting on July 10”, Mr Karat said. Mr Mukherjee, on his part, said that the full text of the draft agreement cannot be shared with “third parties” as it is a “privileged document held in confidence between the Government of India and the IAEA Secretariat”.

(The Business Line dt.9.7.08)