Moga, July 16 General secretary of the PPCC and former minister Malti Thapar has appealed to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to extend his party's support to the Manmohan Singh government on the nuclear deal. In a letter written to Badal today, she said, "No doubt that your association with the BJP is unquestionable, but SAD's or BJP's interests should not be larger than national interests'.

Getting Aggressive Just days before Doha meet, minister says India will walk out if developed countries do not free up trade in services New Delhi, July 16: Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath told reporters today that unless India gets clear binding commitments from the US, the European Union and other developed countries to liberalise trade in services, there will be no deal in the WTO whatsoever. This comes just days before the commencement of the mini-ministerial meeting of the Doha round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on July 21.

Days ahead of the meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors, India will brief the 35 nations who are part of the board as well as the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) countries in a joint session.

Deal Says if Govt falls acting in national interest, so be it JAYAS (AMETHI): Praising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's "vision, tenacity and leadership' on the Indo-US nuclear deal, AICC general secretary and Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi today said the deal was worth the risk and "desh hit mein sarkar gir jaye to gir jaye (if the government falls while acting in national interest, so be it)'. He, however, expressed confidence that the government would win the trust vote in Parliament on July 22.

CPI (M) Politburo member and Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said it is up to the Speaker to decide on his resignation. "The Speaker's office should not be sucked into controversies," he said. Two more pro-UPA jailed MPs

Meeting For IAEA Board Members & Some In NSG Only IN A last-minute change of plan, India has decided to reduce the number of countries it will brief on the IAEA-India specific safeguards agreement and keep the IAEA secretariat out of the picture for the July 18 meeting.

Amidst the din of charges and counter-charges of horse-trading, Samajwadi Party on Tuesday took the issue to the Speaker's court, alleging that its MPs were being coerced into voting against the UPA government. SP leader in Lok Sabha Ramgopal Yadav and party general secretary Amar Singh met Speaker Somnath Chatterjee with a letter from its MP Akshay Pratap Singh who has claimed that he was being threatened with Pota if he voted for UPA.

Despite recent verbal duels over politics of vendetta, former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh wants Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patron Parkash Singh Badal to show statesmanship on the July 22 motion of confidence in the Lok Sabha as he and his party did in passing the rivers waters agreements annulment Act some years ago.

Somnath Chatterjee has refused to quit, rebuffing CPM boss Prakash Karat, who wants him to resign as Speaker of Lok Sabha before July 22 so that Chatterjee can vote against the government in the floor test. Chatterjee, whom the party expected to step down, refused to yield, telling Sitaram Yechury that he would choose the timing of when to quit.

C UDAY BHASKAR Strategic Analyst and Commentator It was prudent not to release it earlier NO. I am of the considered view that the government of India (GOI) did not have to make public the agreed text of the India-specific IAEA agreement earlier than it did. While it is true that this issue has become a lightning rod for the breakdown between the UPA and the left parties, the larger international and domestic political context must be taken note of.