New Delhi: Top Left leaders on Wednesday rejected Government's response to their objections on the Indo-US nuclear deal, saying they were not convinced with even a ‘single contention of the government’ on the issue.
"We are not convinced about even a single contention of the government. It is a lawyers' contention," CPI-M leader A B Bardhan said after an over 90-minute meeting among Left leaders.
The Left leaders met in New Delhi on Wednesday to chalk out their strategy ahead of the UPA-Left Committee meet.
Bardhan was making statement on whether the Left leaders agreed with government's contention on the 123 agreement.
"We have rebuffed, refuted whatever the government has said," Bardhan said.
"Today, we have prepared a sort of reply to Government’s proposal and we will discuss it on that basis," the CPI leader said.
On the remarks made by Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar at Vienna, Bardhan said, "Kakodkar has given a speech in a conference. He has not been discussing India-specific safeguards".
He said the Left need more time so that the issue could be discussed in Parliament.
Meanwhile, in another development US Ambassador David Mulford met India's chief nuclear negotiator Shyam Saran before the UPA-Left meeting.
The two are understood to have deliberated on the future steps to implement the civil nuclear deal in view of the Left parties' stiff opposition to its operationalisation.
Mulford wanted to assess the stance that the Government would adopt.
The US envoy's meeting assumes significance as it came a day after he said India needed to take the last steps to operationalise the deal as ‘time is of essence’.
Mulford's remarks came on a day when CPI-M asked the Government to put a halt on operationalisation of the deal for six months, failing which the Government would face a ‘political crisis’.
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