Congress on Wednesday sought to downplay U S Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns’ comments setting a deadline for implementation of the India-US nuclear deal, saying he was trying to make a domestic political point for George Bush’s Republican Party bound for Presidential election.
“The deal is between the governments of India and the United States, and not between either Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and President Bush or the Congress the and Republican Party. So, whether or not any of the two latter formations remain in power, it does not matter, as far as the deal is concerned,” highly-placed AICC sources said.“If Burns talked of a deadline, it was more of an effort by him to make a political point for the Republican Party in the run up to the US Presidential election. There is no deadline for the deal as far as we are concerned,” the sources said.The comments assume significance in the backdrop of the forced delay in the process of taking forward the delay because of Left opposition to it.
“It is a commitment between two governments, and it does not matter who is heading the two governments when it comes to implementation of the deal,” the sources said. Officially, the ruling party maintained its stand that it was strongly for implementation of the deal. Asked about the comments made by Mr Burns, AICC spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said, “It is very clear that there are some differences with the Left but efforts are on to convince them.”
Reacting to the meetings since Tuesday between Left and UNPA leaders, she said, “If the Left talks to other parties, we are neither surprised nor alarmed. In a democracy, everyone has the freedom to talk with others.”
Responding to BJP’s personalised attack on Dr Singh as a “sad and defeated” leader, she punned on the “Loh Purush” (Iron Man) description of L K Advani calling him a “Low Purush”, and quoted the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s comments of July 31, 2001 to say that it was NDA who had a “sad and defeated” Prime Minister.
