India: government crisis deepens over US nuclear deal

The Congress party, with the approval of Sonia Gandhi, the partys president and ultimate authority, has precipitated this crisis, risking its own political survival.

The Stalinist-led Left-Front was somewhat taken aback initially by the Congress partys determination to proceed with the Indo U.S. nuclear treaty, despite having promised the Left Front that it would not do so until a consensus was reached between the two sides. The Stalinists made a concerted attempt to prevent a political break with the Congress Party by having a series of meetings between the two leaderships, all to no avail.

The so-called UPA-Left Committee on the Indo-US Nuclear Deal met on June 25 in an attempt to iron out some sort of agreement, but instead the meeting broke up acrimoniously. The political impasse between the two sides now appears unbridgeable.