Left irked by PM’s praise of Atal

Threatens to withdraw support in writing for the first time

NEW DELHI: Stung by prime minister Manmohan Singh’s bid to canvass BJP support for the nuclear deal by praising former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee as “Bhishma Pitamah”, CPI general secretary AB Bardhan for the first time in a letter to the prime minister threatened to withdraw support to the UPA government.

Close on the heels of CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat shooting a letter to external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee for an immediate meeting of the UPA-Left nuclear committee, Bardhan took the pitch a step ahead and criticised the prime minister for lauding Vajpayee as the “Bhishma Pitamah” (father figure) of Indian politics as he sought the saffron party’s support to the nuke deal.

Sources said Karat, Bardhan and other Left leaders felt Singh was trying to “isolate” them on the contentious nuke deal by seeking opposition support “in the national interest” in parliament. Bardhan in his letter strongly objected to PM’s reference to Vajpayee and warned the government saying, “should the government decides to push ahead with the deal  we will not be a party to go along with it. We will then be left with no other option than to withdraw our support to the government.”

Bardhan said, “your own speech, Mr Prime Minister appealing to Atal Bihari Vajpayee whom you chose to address as ‘Bhishma Pitamah’ of Indian politics to rise above narrow party interest, is another example of your canvassing BJP support for the deal.”

The CPI chief said: “it was not just the nuclear deal alone, but many other violations of the common minimum programme, which is causing disquiet.”  

Party sources said prime minister’s seeking the support of the saffron party was the “height of desperation”. Singh had asked Vajpayee to “listen to the call of his conscience” and back the deal by rising above party politics.

Both Karat and Bardhan were irked with the PM and that’s why they raised the pitch, left sources said. They said the Left had given a green signal to the government for discussions with the IAEA to avoid a ‘mid-term poll’ and allow the UPA to work out an honourable exit from the agreement with Washington.

“They wanted an honourable exit from the deal then. They wanted to tell the outside world that the government was keen but was not able to evolve a political consensus on it,” a senior Left leader said.