New Delhi: After giving a go-ahead for negotiation with IAEA on the nuclear deal, the CPI(M) has bluntly told the UPA government that it will have to pay a 'political price' if it 'betrays' the agreement reached with the Left parties on the issue.

CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said the Left parties allowed the government to proceed with talks with IAEA after an understanding that it will have to report back to the UPA-Left committee on the issue.

"The moment they defy, betray this understanding, remember.... they will have to pay the political price," Yechury told a private news channel.
   
He said the government has assured "not only to Left but the people of the country" that it will get back to the UPA-Left panel after IAEA negotiations.

Asked whether the government decides to go ahead with inking the deal saying IAEA safeguards were in the interest of the nation, he said, "by that time, the government will be off. Elections will be there."
   
"If the government's interest is not in seeing themselves in...if that is the case then the government should necessarily go. If deal is more important than being in government, let it go," Yechury, also a Rajya Sabha MP, said.

He said though the Left has given the green signal to the government for talks with IAEA after it changed its position on the matter, theCPI(M) is "sceptical" about the outcome of the talks as objections raised by them cannot be addressed by the international body.
   
Asked whether allowing talks with IAEA was taken as a blanket go-ahead for the deal, he said, "yes, absolutely correct."

Source : PTI