No December deadline for UPA govt on N-deal: Yechury

SHIMLA: The CPI (M) on Tuesday said it has not set any December deadline for the Manmohan Singh government on the nuclear deal issue and would await government's view on IAEA talks at the next UPA-Left Committee meeting.

CPI (M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury said party general secretary Prakash Karat was "misquoted" as having served an ultimatum to UPA government on nuclear deal.
   
"The future course of action on Indo-US civil nuclear deal will be decided after the government, on return of its representatives from IAEA, briefs the UPA-Left Committee," he told here.
   
Yechury, who is a member of the Committee, admitted that the Congress and Left hold "divergent" views on the nuclear issue.
   
"While Congress under pressure from the US is propagating the deal as good for the interest of the nation failing which the country will be pushed backward by decades, CPI(M) and the Left opinion is that the nuclear deal is not in the interest of the country and should be stopped at all cost," he said.
   
Yechury said the date for the next meeting of the Committee has not yet been fixed.
   
"The Left is convinced on its views and stand committed on the nuclear issue," he said adding "we never talked about mid-term elections...".
   
"This issue (mid-term poll) has to be decided by the Congress-led UPA government," he said.