Left leaders not attending PM's dinner

     New Delhi: Most of the leaders of the Left parties have expressed their inability to attend the dinner tonight being hosted by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh ahead of the Budget session of Parliament. According to Left sources there is no conscious attempt to remain away from the dinner. All top leaders are out of the national capital, they added. Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader Abani Roy said the dinner meeting is of the "broader UPA" and the Left parties had already expressed their views during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) - Left meeting. Hence, it was "unnecessary" to go there, he added. It may be recalled that at the UPA-Left Coordination Committee on Monday, the Left said it was ready to take up the contentious issue of Iran and that there were no plans of moving a no- confidence motion against the Central Government. The CPI(M) Politburo meeting, that took place in Kolkata on February 10, had resented the Centre's move on the Iran issue and had threatened that the Centre would be put "in the dock" in Parliament if "it insisted on voting for a referral on the Iran issue in UN Security Council". CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said on Sunday that the party may think of forming a third alternative to Congress and BJP in the future.

BJP supports Iran vote

    New Delhi: The Opposition BJP on Tuesday said endorsed the Centre's vote for reporting Iran to the UN Security Council over its controversial nuclear programme, saying New Delhi could not afford another nuclear power in its neighbourhood. In a major reprieve to the Congress led government UPA alliance, the BJP said India couldn't ignore the implications of its long- time friend Iran acquiring nuclear weapons with arch rivals Pakistan adding to the mess.

    The endorsement of the Centre's stand by the BJP comes as a great relief to the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government, at a time when its Communist allies have rapped the government, saying the move does not conform to India's non-aligned foreign policy and have sought a parliamentary debate on it. "India can clearly neither ignore, nor minimize the strategic implications and adverse consequences of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. It was therefore patently in India's interests to have been in the forefront of the vast majority of the international community questioning the many clandestine devices through which nuclear technology and material have been transferred to Iran from Pakistan and several other countries," said senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh at a news conference after a meeting of the party's parliamentary board in New Delhi. "These acquisitions are in clear violation of the obligations, and commitments under the Non-Proliferation Treaty plus all related safeguard provisions of it," he said.

    Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been rallying to calm the miffed allies but analysts say the stage seems to be set for a more volatile confrontation after the decisive March 5 vote at the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Communists have said that the Manmohan Singh government, which has been increasingly cozying up to Washington in the wake of a key nuclear deal, is selling itself out. The BJP had also taken the Manmohan Singh government to task over the bickering saying it had left New Delhi in a serious diplomatic mess. Jaswant Singh said the government instead of taking a unilateral stand on an issue of grave international and domestic importance appeared to have been pressurized and cajoled. "The substance that there should not be another nuclear country in our neighbourhood stands, as our view point. But the arrival at that conclusion that there should not be another nuclear country in our neighbourhood should be a determination that is made by the Government of India. It should not appear as if the government of India is arriving at this at the prodding and pushing of some other country or upon some other consideration," he said. The Left parties who provide crucial support to the Congress led UPA alliance want India to end its support to the West on the Iran issue and want New Delhi to follow the example of the nations of Non-Aligned Movement, which had called for softening the IAEA resolution. New Delhi says it voted against old ally Tehran to gain time for negotiations and to consider Moscow's proposal for enriching uranium fuel in Russia on Iran's behalf -- a move intended to ensure no fuel is diverted to build Iranian weapons.

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