Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India was ready to go to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for finalizing the India-specific safeguards agreement, a crucial step in taking the India-US nuclear deal ahead. Asserting that he was not “worried” by the political crisis triggered after the Communists threatened to pull out if the deal was taken ahead, Manmohan Singh said his government was “equipped” to deal with any contingency.

Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh: “We are holding our parliamentary board meeting Tuesday (to decide on supporting the Congress).”

Congress general secretary M. Verappa Moily said: “We hope the Left will have the patience to attend the next meeting of UPA-Left committee on July 10.”

Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) general secretary T.J. Chandrachoodan said: “We have been observing all the proprieties. But the prime minister has flouted them by announcing a major decision out of this country.”

Debabrata Biswas of the Forward Bloc, one of the four Left parties that prop up the Congress-led government: “We have demanded that the Left parties should go to President Pratibha Patil to give a letter withdrawing our support to the UPA government.”