Cong says N-deal must happen, Left set deadline

CPI leader D Raja, a member of the Committee, met Karat this morning and discussed the strategy on getting from the government its position on whether it wants to go ahead with the deal despite Left’s opposition to it.

Sources said Karat’s letter comes against the backdrop of reports that the text of the draft India-specific Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA is more or less ready and the Left parties would like to have a discussion on that.

The Left missive also assumes significance in the context of the American deadline of May for the 123 agreement to be sent to the US Congress.

It is necessary for the government to complete the IAEA agreement by March end so that they can proceed to the Nuclear Suppliers Group for getting a waiver to do nuclear commerce with other countries.

“The Americans have set a deadline for the government.

The Left parties will also have to set a deadline for the government. The next meeting of the UPA-Left Committee will be crucial,” a senior Left leader said.

The Left sees urgency on the issue after a spate of statements from the government expressing its virtual determination to go ahead with the deal.

They cite the reference in the President’s Address to Joint Sitting of Parliament, the External Affairs Minister’s statement on the issue and the Prime Minister’s remarks on Wednesday in Parliament making it clear that it was keen on having the “broadest possible consensus” on the deal.

They also see in his remarks praising former Prime

Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as ‘Bhishma Pitamaha’ and urging him to rise above narrow political interests to support the deal as attempts to divide the BJP on the issue.

Raja took note of reports that the US has conveyed to India that the nature of the government — whether minority or caretaker — would be of no concern to it when the 123 agreement is signed with India and the stiff May deadline referred by visiting Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher.

He said the government should make it clear to the Left, whose support is crucial for its survival, whether it was keen on going ahead with the implementation of the deal brushing aside their opposition.

Raja said in that case, the Left parties would also decide their future course of action.

The Left-UPA Committee on the deal has not met since November when it gave the go ahead for negotiations with the IAEA on finalising a draft safeguards agreement on the condition that it would not be initialled or signed.

It was agreed that the draft would be brought back to the Committee for discussion and approval.

Nuke deal will have to happen: Congress

Unfazed by Left parties’ threat to withdraw support to the UPA government, Congress asserted that the Indo-US nuclear deal ‘will have to happen in the interest of the nation’.

“The deal will have to happen in the interest of the nation”, party’s Media Department chairman M Veerappa Moily said.

At the same time, he sought to downplay the CPM demand for an immediate meeting of UPA-Left Committee and the Marxist party’s warning about the future of the government saying it was neither an ultimatum nor did the government face any threat.

“I don’t think it as an ultimatum or government is under threat”, Moily said adding the key outside supporters had never been ‘unreasonable’ and ‘till today everyone is on board and nothing has been obstructed and deal is on course’.

His remarks came close on the heels of CPI-M shooting off a letter to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, government’s key interlocutor with the allies on the deal, asking for convening of the UPA-Left Committee meeting by March 15.

Karat’s letter comes against the backdrop of reports that the text of the draft India-specific Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA is more or less ready.