The Government on Saturday said it will go ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal, but take into account Left concerns as the key allies concluded a four-day ‘jatha’ with a warning that it was up to the ruling coalition to think of “consequences” if their views were ignored.

CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said Parliament should discuss the nuclear issue to “let the country know whether this Government has any support on it”. The Left leader refused to speculate on mid-term elections and said his party was keen to get on with the UPA-Left committee examining objections to the deal. In Visakhapatnam, CPI leader A B Bardhan said “consequences will follow” if Left concerns were not taken on board.

The day saw a renewed war of words with a senior Central minister suspecting a hidden agenda behind the Left campaign and rejected their contention that the Hyde Act passed by the US Congress overrode the bilateral 123 agreement to operationalise the deal.

Union Minister Kapil Sibal, a member of the UPA-Left committee on the nuclear issue, wondered whether the allies had a “hidden agenda” in opposing the deal. “They are on the panel and they are conducting public rallies. I want to know from you whether these are double standards or not,” he told reporters in Kolkata. “We will take into account the concerns of Left parties before operationalising the nuclear deal,” he said, adding, “there is no area to renegotiate it”.