Govt holds talks with Left to clear stalemate on nuke deal

The 15-member panel of the ruling UPA and its Left allies are participating in a meeting being held here to take stock of government's negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on India-specific safeguards for implementing the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.

The meeting between the nuclear committee of the two parties is being held for the eighth time as a whole and for the second time in series followed by the government's committee concluding talks on India specific safeguards with the IAEA.

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The Left's main concern is to know the progress made with the IAEA regarding Hyde Act. Because Left believes the condition laid down by the Hyde Act would hinder India from pursuing an independent foreign policy and instead will make it a dependent to US strategic interests worldwide.

Sources say that the two sides are meeting with completely different purpose whereas the government would do its best to clear the stalemate between the duo and try to take the support of Left on the deal. On the other hand, the Left as per the source is clear that the deal cannot be persisted with. However, despite agreeing or disagreeing the meeting will likely to continue till August, by when the Left feel the US would lose its interest in the deal.

The Left is likely to get answer of the four queries it asked the ruling committee last month during its meeting on March 17.

If the government serves Left with substantive reply the discussion will be carried out or else the party will seek time to study the reply. But in lack of satisfying answer the chances are very little for the issue to get resolve quickly, a party source said.

'We don't literally know whether any text of a safeguards agreement has been finalised. In case if any agreement concludes with the IAEA our next concern will be to know whether there was anything in the content of this text which can resolve our concerns,' said CPI (M) leader and the Politburo member Sitaram Yechury.

He however said that Left considers it difficult for the government to reveal the text of the agreement at the nascent stage of the deal.

During their last meeting, the Left demanded to have a look at the draft agreement between India and the IAEA, but was not given to see it. The government presented before them the salient features of the Draft but denied to share the document.

Earlier sharp deflection in the government's stand noticed when the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the government was bound to the Parliament. And while concluding any international deal the government would seek the assent of the House, however it was not bind to do so.

In numerous interviews and in parliamentary session, Mukherjee had repeatedly stated much before his US visit that a minority government couldn’t and should not sign the nuclear deal.

The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said the government was ready to discuss any matter with the Left. “We will discuss whatever issue our colleagues will like to raise,” Singh told reporters on the eve of the meeting between the UPA-Left committee on nuclear deal.

AICC spokesperson Manish Tewari said the Government had made an honest attempt to address the concerns of the Left. “But the fact of the matter is that the Left has allowed the Government or the Government has been able to persuade the Left to bring the deal to a stage whereby the draft agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is in place,” he added.

Few days ago the US however in order to remove misunderstanding had clearly spoken that India’s civil nuclear agreement was not binding with the Hyde Act but with the 123 agreement.

The final agreed draft by the Indian government will be presented before the Board of Governor of IAEA then to US and lastly the deal will be presented before 45-member Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG) to get it clear which will give India unconditional exemption to do nuclear exchange internationally.