Left sets deadline on nuclear deal

In a significant political development, the Left parties on Thursday asked the government to convene a meeting of the UPA-Left joint committee on the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal by March 15.

CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat has sent a letter on behalf of the Left parties to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is also the convener of the committee. The Left has demanded the urgent meeting to ascertain what the government wants to do about the nuclear deal. Mr. Karat’s letter cites media reports that the negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency on the draft safeguards agreement have covered considerable ground.

The latest move of the Left parties, on whose support the minority UPA government depends for survival, comes in the wake of visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher reminding India of a stiff May deadline to finalise the deal. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, replying to the debate on motion of thanks to the Presidential address in Parliament, spoke of the government’s efforts to evolve a consensus on the deal. He also appealed to his predecessor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to “listen to the call of his conscience” and back the nuclear deal by rising above party politics.

In his letter, Mr. Karat also seems to have taken cognisance of Mr. Mukherjee’s March 3 suo moto statement in Parliament. The statement indicated that the government had not given up on the 123 agreement and also that the government’s understanding of the controversial Hyde Act was different from the Left’s view of it.

The agreement between the UPA government and the Left parties is that without initialling the draft IAEA safeguards agreement, the government would come back to the committee, which would take a decision on it. Thus the draft agreement would fall within the purview of the UPA-Left joint committee, which has not met since November 2007.

Left sources believe the next joint committee meeting will be crucial. “If the government wants to still proceed with its course of action on nuclear deal, we will also be free to choose our own course of action”, a senior Left leader told The Hindu.

News Source : Samachar