Drop nuke deal if UPA-Left panel says so: CPI(M) to govt

NEW DELHI; The CPI(M) said on Saturday that the government should take the next step on the Indo-US nuclear deal only on the basis of the UPA-Left Committee's findings and should drop it if it is not approved by the panel.
    
"The talks are going on even today in Vienna. Whether our concerns will be addressed in these talks will be known only when this Committee meets again.
    
"The UPA has agreed in writing that the government will proceed on the basis of this Committee's findings. If the Committee says it (deal) is not correct, then the government has to follow it," CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said on the sidelines of the party Central Committee meeting here.
    
He said even some of the UPA partners felt the "Left concerns are genuine" and these parties wanted them to be addressed.
    
"The government feels the deal is in the national interest, but we feel it is not. Now the talks are on (at the IAEA in Vienna). Whether our concerns would be addressed at these talks will be known only when the Indian team returns," Yechury said in reply to questions.
    
Asked about CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan's threat to pull out support if the government went ahead with the deal, he said "our agenda is the nuclear deal and not the stability of the government or an early or late election. That is for the government to decide."
    
At the same time, Yechury quoted External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee as saying that survival of the government was more important than the deal and ruling out early elections.
    
Asked whether they had recieved any intimation on when the next meeting of the UPA-Left panel on the nuclear deal would be held, he replied in the negative but said the Indian team was expected to return from Vienna in a day or two. "I think the meeting will be held only after they return."
    
To a question as to how the Left concerns on the nuclear deal with US could be addressed, the CPI(M) leader said "if our concerns are to be resolved, then the Hyde Act will have to apply. It should not apply. We think the 123 agreement is anchored in the Hyde Act and its conditionalities."
    
The CPI(M) has earlier stated that the Hyde Act would impact India's independent foreign policy and make New Delhi an ally of Washington in its global military strategy.
    
While the CPI(M) has set a March 15 deadline to the government to convene a meeting of the UPA-Left Committee, CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday threatening to withdraw support if the government went ahead with the deal.