A day of meetings, ahead of the big one

Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee wound up his three-day visit to Australia and returned to Delhi on Tuesday night. The government's point-person to deal with the Left parties, his return was keenly awaited. Wednesday evening, after all, was the critical meeting with the Left parties to discuss the Indo-US nuclear deal, which had become the government's Lakshman Rekha beyond which it was not being allowed to go.

Wednesday morning began with the CPI-M's strong man Prakash Karat driving down to Mukherjee's Talkatora Road residence to discuss the evening's meeting. Also present was Defence Minister A K Anthony. The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere, but clearly positions had to be taken. There was no lessening in the Left leader's resolve to red light the government going ahead with the next steps in operationalising the nuclear deal.

Soon after the meeting, Mukherjee and Anthony drove over to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's 10 Janpath residence to apprise her of the meeting with Karat. A decision to either go ahead with the deal and risk the government, or shelve and save the UPA, rests entirely with her.

If the Congress leadership was huddled in meetings, the Left was not wasting any time. Karat, after meeting the external affairs minister, next met the Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh. The meeting is critical since the SP has been showing signs of a thaw towards the Congress party. With the Bahujan Samaj Party pulling out of the UPA, the SP's support, especially if the government were to face a no-confidence motion after going ahead with the nuclear deal, becomes crucial.

The SP, while traditionally being a Left ally, has not entirely rejected the nuclear deal, and has said it will take a considered decision on the matter.

During the day Mukherjee also had a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, although it was ostensibly to hand over a copy of the e-passport, a scheme that was launched by the President earlier in the day. The two met for 30 minutes and it is natural they would have discussed the nuclear deal, on which the prime minister has staked his government's future.

The prime minister has kept a low profile since the last one week, and it is believed that he may resign if the nuclear deal does not go through. At the end of the day, the Left parties put out the word that there is no compromise formula and they are keen on hearing what the government has to say at the evening's meeting. Which surely cannot come as good news for the prime minister.

But not all hope is lost. The CPM's politburo is to meet on Sunday to discuss the nuclear deal, and the third front, grandly titled the United National Progressive Alliance, will meet next week to decide on its course of action.

Till then, at least, there will be no end to the meetings.