New Delhi: The magic box of Indo-US civil nuclear deal once again kept people and politicians grappled for yet another day with uncountable meetings between all the leaders-to-be-counted in the national capital. And, the most countable faction for the UPA government, the CPI(M) has issued a fresh warning to the government writing a letter to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee asking him to clear government's stand on going to IAEA.

In a letter signed by all the four chiefs of the Left Front parties, Prakash Karat, A B Bardhan, Debabrata Bishwas and T J Chandrachoodan, the Left has said, "Various pronouncements are being made by leaders of the ruling coalition and some union ministers that the government is going ahead with the nuclear deal. We wish to know definitely whether the government is proceeding to seek the approval of the safeguards agreement by the Board of Governors of the IAEA." For this the Left has set July, 7.

Politically, the Left has bought time till Monday and some mindspace to keep a watch on the adjacent political developments involving SP and Congress. Moreover, it is also expecting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or the PMO to make government's stand public as to whether they will wait for an unlikely "political consensus" to arrive on nuke deal, as the Congress had been saying.

Furthermore, UNPA is also holding a meeting on July 6 to decisde the question of supporting UPA government on nuclear deal. Interestingly, the SP is in full mood to support the UPA on the deal, as it finds BSP a bigger enemy compared to the Congress, which was the rival number one just till a year ago. Then, CPI(M) general secretary has given the SP's Uttar Pradesh government a cushion to ward off president rule, which was looming large because the UPA was hellbent on imposing centre's rule under Article 356 before UP Assembly elections.

Ironically, SP is now drifting away from CPI(M) closer to the Congress over the so-called question of nuke deal vis-a-vis national interest. SP leaders met former president and renowned scientist A P J Abdul Kalam to get some "enlightenment" on the controversial deal. SP's move was surprising especially in the wake of the fact that Kalam's support to the deal was known to everyone. It seems to be just a stage-setting for SP to announce its support to or at least lowering its guard against the deal, which has seen Left going away from UPA.

SP is now trying to influence upon the other UNPA parties, who are against Congress in their respective states and are against the deal. SP is hoping to draw some benefits by aligning with a "like minded parties" against the BSP during next Lok Sabha elections. This alignment also benefits Congress, which has lost even the minimum strength in UP to be counted as a serious political entity in the state. This swing of SP and alignment with Congress has perplexed the Left leaders to the core and by giving time to the UPA-Left convenor Pranab Mukherjee, the Left has actually given some time to itself to act further on the question of withdrawing support to the UPA.

Public agitation from July 14

Meanwhile, the Left leaders today decided to go back to their cadres and explain their viewpoint on the deal to them. But, they would now be mixing the opposition with high inflation and backbreaking price rise and "all anti-people policies". "The Left parties have decided to launch an all India campaign from the 14th of July to go to the people to explain their opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal, against the government's refusal to take appropriate measures to tackle the runaway inflation, backbreaking price rise and against all anti-people policies," Karat said.

At the same time the Left parties would try to take non-BJP, non-Congress parties along in their agitation. This could be a last attempt by them to form an alliance with the UNPA. The written statement issued by the four left parties said, "The Left parties will staunchly expose and oppose the efforts of the BJP and its allies to whip up communal polarization with a view to gain political and electoral support. The Left parties appeal to all other secular forces to join us in this endeavour."