Govt breathes easy: Left refuses to join hands with BJP on N-deal

NEW DELHI: Raising the government's comfort level, the Left parties have ruled out joining hands with BJP in the saffron plans to bring a resolution in Parliament against the Indo-US nuclear deal.

At the same time, a senior Left leader made it clear that the outside supporters were insisting on a 'sense of the House' statement on the ticklish issue after the government holds talks with all parties including the BJP to address their concerns in the sensitive matter.

The statement of the Left leader, who did not want to be identified, has come in the backdrop of BJP upping its ante on the issue declaring to bring such a resolution on its own if there was no consensus on the issue with the Left.

Putting up a brave front after the BJP announcement, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Dasmunsi said, "They (the BJP) have the right to do so. If they have the guts, let them do so. Why should we create obstacles? We will face it".

His comments came hours after senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said his party believed the pact was aimed at stifling India's nuclear programme and "not worth the paper it is written on" as a number of fresh conditionalities have been added to it by Washington.

Government has been consistently opposed to the idea of a Parliament resolution on the deal contending that it would affect its elbow room. The Left parties had also talked of such a resolution till last week when Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee made it known to them that such a move was fraught with danger and could mean end of the government.

Later the government also expressed the hope that the issue would not create a crisis for the coalition and that the Left, whose concerns would be addressed, would not align with the BJP.

Meanwhile, Congress downplayed suggestions about absence of any reference to the Indo-US nuclear deal in the party chief Sonia Gandhi's address to the Congress Parliamentary Party.

Party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said that it does not mean that the deal was "an issue of no concern" for the party and maintained that the Congress stands firmly with the Government in the matter.

Earlier, The BJP had decided to oppose the Indo-US Nuclear treaty in Parliament, taking the support of the Left parties if necessary.

A resolution to this effect was passed in the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting, presided over by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha L K Advani, where the party decided to move its own resolution, if the Left parties, supporting the UPA government from outside, were either unwilling or reluctant to associate with the BJP, party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra told mediapersons after the meeting.