Communist Party of India-Marxist moderates led by partriarch Jyoti Basu on Monday apparently prevailed over the hardliners not to precipitate matters on the Indo-US nuke deal and instead look for ways to resolve differences with the Centre.
Without holding out a threat of withdrawal of support, the CPI-M central committee adopted a wait and watch policy keeping the window open to allow the Centre to address the concerns raised by the Left over the deal.
"We had only one meeting on September 19. We had a proper discussion. Next meeting is on October 5. From this I can only say that attempts are being made to grapple with the issues, which we have posed before the (UPA-Left) committee," according to CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat.
Basu had set the tone on Sunday on the Left's latest strategy saying the CPI-M will await the outcome of the UPA-Left Committee deliberations on the deal on October 5 and 14 and will see if New Delhi could extract concessions from
Washington.
"There will be more meetings so it will be unfair to say this will not achieve anything," Karat said.
Basu, underscored this by saying, "All decisions on the crucial nuclear deal were taken unanimously."
Asked if it included the option of withdrawal of support, Karat said, "I'm not talking of that. We have not discussed that. I am talking about whether they will proceed with the next step or not. I don't know beyond that what will happen. Unfortunately, we have not been told by the government what the understanding of the situation is."
© 2026