UNPA joins Left, calls UPA Govt pursuing nuclear fundamentalism

New Delhi, Oct 23: The leaders of the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA), or the Third Front, on Tuesday made a scathing attack on the Congress-led UPA government over the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, and said that the government is pursuing 'nuclear fundamentalism'.

The UNPA's latest salvo against the Government came hours after CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat met top leaders of the UPA constituents and urged them to form a unified opposition against the nuclear deal.

The UNPA also demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to review the nuclear deal.

The Left, which cannot align with the BJP that too opposes the deal, wooed the Third Front to show the UPA that the majority was against the nuclear deal.

After a marathon meeting here, UNPA leaders formalised the organisation structure of the alliance, where Samjawadi party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav will be the chairman, Telugu Desam party leader Chandrababu Naidu the convenor and SP leader Amar Singh as the alliance's spokesperson.

Sensing early polls, the alliance also decided to hold several rallies in the country- Visakhapatnam, Lucknow and Jaipur, where they plan to oppose the government's agricultural policies.

A day the UPA Government refused to budge on Left's demand to publicly declare the end of Indo-US nuclear deal, Karat met Mulayam Singh, Amar Singh and TDP leader Y Naidu.

The discussions between the Left, and Samajwadi Party (SP) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) were held with a view to reach a common understanding over the deal on the floor of the House, Karat said.

On Monday, the special committee of the UPA and the Left formed to resolve disagreements between the two sides over the deal held deliberations for the fifth time.

They decided to continue the talks and scheduled their next meeting on November 16 even as the 'unofficial' deadline for India to initiate formal negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for country-specific agreements ends in October.  

Just hours before this meeting, top leaders of the coalition government met amidst report that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has expressed his disappointment over the politics being played over the bilateral agreement.

The civilian nuclear cooperation deal aims to lift a three-decade ban on sales of US nuclear fuel and reactors to India, which was imposed after it conducted a nuclear test in 1974 while staying out of non-proliferation agreements.

The Left Front, which provides crucial support to the government from outside, has been opposing the deal and the situation between UPA and Left reached a nadir, sparking the prospect of snap elections. (ANI)

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