New Delhi, Oct. 25: The CPM has said the US setting deadlines for the nuclear deal is an “insult to Indian democracy”.

“The democratic processes of any country cannot be influenced by external pressures and by the needs of another country,” the party said in an editorial in the forthcoming issue of People’s Democracy.

US under-secretary of state for political affairs, Nicholas Burns, had said on Tuesday that India needed to move fast because the Bush administration would like to send the final legislation sealing the deal to Congress by the year-end. He also said it wasn’t a good idea to send a key legislation to Congress in the spring or summer of an election year.

The Left parties and the UNPA leaders continued their talks to work out a joint strategy to oppose the nuclear deal in Parliament. UNPA chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, along with Amar Singh, met CPM general secretary Prakash Karat and CPI leaders A.B. Bardhan and D. Raja.