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Double standards, says Kapil Sibal

Kapil Sibal

KOLKATA: The Government on Saturday indicated that it might go ahead with the India-U.S. nuclear deal but take into account the Left parties’ concerns before operationalising it.

Union Minister of Science and Technology Kapil Sibal, who is the designated spokesman of the Government to articulate its stand on the deal, also chose the Left bastion to hold a press conference where he launched broadsides against Left parties accusing them of having double standards on the deal and wondered if they had a “hidden agenda” in opposing the agreement.

Asked whether the Centre was going ahead with the deal, Mr. Sibal said: “Nobody said we are stopping the deal.”

However, “we will take into account the concerns of Left parties before operationalising it,” he said adding “there is no area to renegotiate it.”

Criticising the street campaign by Left parties against the nuclear deal and the joint naval exercises, Mr. Sibal accused them of “double standards.”

“They are conducting public rallies. Why are they doing it? They are on the panel [the UPA-Left committee] and they are conducting public rallies even today. I want to know from you whether these are double standards or not,” he told a questioner.

Mr. Sibal said the Left’s opposition to the 123 agreement “is for opposition’s sake. If they have a hidden agenda, the people of this country must know.”

He dismissed as “unacceptable” and “uninformed opinion” the Left’s view that the Henry Hyde Act on the deal passed by the U.S. Congress overrode the 123 agreement. — PTI

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