Left for India getting N-fuel, but scrapping deal with US

Left for India getting N-fuel, but scrapping deal with US
6 Jan, 2008, 2312 hrs IST, TNN

NEW DELHI: Two days after the UPA government made the familiar “we-have-not-given-up” statement on Indo-US nuclear deal assertions, top Left leaders reaffirmed their opposition to the 123 Agreement. Playing down external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee’s statements on going ahead with the deal, the Left sees little hope for the 123 Agreement.

With the nuclear deal soon to take centre stage in the political scenario, general secretaries of the CPM and the CPI — Prakash Karat and A B Bardhan — on Sunday firmed up the Left position on the issue. During an hour-long meeting, the leaders decided that the Left will stick to its opposition to the 123 Agreement. However, the Left is concerned about India being denied nuclear fuel from other countries, like Russia and France, if the safeguards agreement with the IAEA is not in place.

In other words, the Left’s strategy would be to ask the government to work out a mechanism to ensure that the nuclear fuel market opens up for India but the deal with the US is not operationalised. However, without the US support, India would find it impossible to evolve a consensus in the NSG. In fact, doors are opening for India because of the US backing for the deal.

The Left, which had relented to the government’s plea to allow it to hold India-specific negotiations with the IAEA, is expecting that the government will get in touch with it later this month for the next round of the UPA-Left co-ordination committee meeting on the deal. Meanwhile, the Left is hopeful that the deal will be put on the backburner. It is pinning its hopes on several reasons - one being Mr Mukherjee’s own statement that the international community will not be keen on working out an agreement with a minority government.

Mr Mukherjee had admitted “time is running out. But one cannot help it. Either you lose the majority and if a government loses (its) majority nobody is going to have an arrangement with a minority government.”

Amidst the negotiations with the IAEA, Mr Karat had given a fresh ultimatum to end talks by December or face mid-term polls. He had said the Left had allowed the government to discuss India-specific safeguards with the IAEA as it did not want the government to fall before the Gujarat elections. He had made it clear that when the government returned from talks with the IAEA, the Left would ask it not to go ahead. The Left also is of the view that with the US going into election mode, the nuclear deal is likely to fade into the background in Washington.