Indo-US N-deal: UPA-Left panel's meet postponed

CPI (M) Secy D Raja says that the reason sighted is the winter session of Parliament beginning November 15.

The crucial meeting of the UPA-Left committee on the Indo-US nuclear deal, scheduled for November 16, stands postponed.

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This has been formally communicated to the Left parties by the ruling alliance, according to CPI (M) Secretary D Raja.
Raja is the member of the 15-member panel which has External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee as its convenor.

Raja said that the reason sighted was the winter session of Parliament beginning November 15 during which a discussion on the deal is expected.

The meeting is likely only after the session which concludes on December 7. The move has come even as CPI General Secretary Prakash Karat had said a couple of days back that the Left has not sought any postponement and neither the government has indicated its decision to defer it.

While there were reports that the November 16 meeting could have been the last of the panel, both sides had indicated that there could be more talks.

The UPA-Left committee was constituted a few months back as a joint mechanism to sort out differences between the Congress-led coalition at the Centre and the outside supporters Left parties on the deal.

The political temperature was brought down sharply last month when the Prime Minister made conciliatory statement on the deal and Congress President Sonia Gandhi conceded that the Left demands were not unreasonable.

The Government moves to have a discussion on the deal in the last session of Parliament had come a cropper due to frequent stalling of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha by the opposition BJP as also the United National Progress Alliance (UNPA) which wanted a joint parliamentary committee to go into the deal.