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New Delhi: Angry about the government's eagerness to sign a civilian nuclear deal with the United States, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) said it could withdraw support from the government if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made what is seen as a symbolic trip to a G8 summit.
The CPM is one of four leftist parties that have threatened to pull out of the ruling coalition if Singh moves ahead with a deal they say will make the country a pawn of Washington.
The four Left parties will hold a meeting on Friday to discuss Singh's proposed trip to a G8 summit on July 7 in Japan, said senior communist leader Sitaram Yechury.
For the Left, Singh's decision to proceed with the trip could symbolise his decision to move ahead with one of his most important diplomatic policies, one for which he shook hands with President George W. Bush at the White House in 2005.
"He had said he would only go (to the summit) if he gets clearance to go ahead with the nuclear deal," Prakash Karat, the head of the CPM, told the Hindustan Times yesterday.
"His going to Japan is an indication that they (the government) are going ahead with the deal. We are therefore discussing the timing of the withdrawal."
A senior CPM official, Nilotpal Basu, confirmed Karat's statement.
Asked specifically if the communist parties would withdraw their support if the prime minister went to Japan, Karat said: "That is not the case yet."
Left urged to reconsider
The statement is the latest in the war of words between the two allies as speculation mounts that the communists will withdraw, plunging the country into possible early elections this year and months of political uncertainty.
Singh was quoted as saying in The Hindu newspaper yesterday that he wanted the Left to allow him to move ahead in getting clearances from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, procedures that could take months.
Singh said he would then allow the nuclear deal to be debated in parliament.
"I have said it before," Singh told The Hindu. "I will repeat it again that you allow us to complete the process. Once the process is over, I will bring it before parliament."
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