BJP asks Left to bite and not bark

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is enjoying the Left-UPA rift over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

On Saturday, a day when the Communist Party on India-Marxist (CPI-M) General Secretary Prakash Karat warned the UPA not to go ahead with the operationalisation of the nuclear deal, the BJP added fuel to the fire by asking the Left to withdraw support to the Manmohan Singh government.

The BJP said that it was time for the Left parties to "bite" and not "bark" on the nuclear deal issue.

BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said, “Left must be clear on its stand. It’s not important whether a Government stays or goes. It’s important to have an issue settled. If the Left does not support it, they should prove it. They cannot keep playing a cat and a mouse's story in continuity.”

"In their verbal duel with the Prime Minister, the Communists have spoken of serious consequences against operationalising the deal. It's high time they took it to its logical conclusion and withdraw support," senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra said.

"The Left should bite instead of barking. Empty rhetoric do not work," Malhotra, whose party had sought a vote in Parliament on the 123 Agreement, said.

BJP President Rajnath Singh said, "Left Front should decide between trappings of power and interests of nation."

Rajnath said that there could be no national consensus or broad political acceptability of the deal in its present form.

He also said that ideological and political differences do not matter on issues of national importance.

Earlier, former deputy prime minister LK Advani had unsuccessfully sought support from CPI-M leader Prakash Karat to BJP's call for voting on the nuclear pact.

The RSS has also challenged the Left to pull out support to the UPA over the nuclear deal.

"If the Left is serious about opposing the nuclear deal in particular and the US hegemony in general, it has no other option but withdraw support to the UPA government," an editorial in Sangh mouthpiece Organiser said.

It said Prime Minister's challenge to the Communists to pull down his government has made their position untenable.

The Sangh write-up insisted that the deal would impose American supremacy over India.

"There is no way now for the Prime Minister to pretend that the deal is in India's interest. This is a one-way street where only the big bully has all the right of way," it said.

Manmohan Singh's hard talk and the deal, the editorial added, have given the Left a golden opportunity to introspect.

"No longer can the comrades continue to enjoy power without accountability the way they have been doing all these years. If the deal is through, they will have to own up responsibility for allowing it and torpedoing the united opposition of the majority of Indians both inside and outside Parliament," it said.

(With inputs from PTI)