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Saturday, Sep 01, 2007
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Dasmunsi: no question of putting talks on hold

Neena Vyas

No dates fixed for meeting with IAEA

NEW DELHI: As no dates have been fixed for a meeting between India’s representatives and the International Atomic Energy Agency, there cannot be any question of putting such negotiations “on hold,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi said here on Friday.

He was responding to persistent questions from the media whether Thursday’s joint statement by the United Progressive Alliance and the Left parties on the India-United States nuclear deal implied that the government put further talks with the IAEA and the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group “on hold” as had been demanded by the Left.

The setting up of a committee to discuss with the Left the issues related to the deal was not a game of one-upmanship, he said. It was an effort to address the concerns expressed by supporting parties of the UPA. The Minister said there was no question of the UPA and the Left trying to put each other down. In his view, the key sentence in the joint statement meant that when the nuclear deal was operationalised the UPA would keep in mind the committee report. The findings of the committee and the preceding discussions “will strengthen the hands of the government”

He insisted, as he did stress in the Lok Sabha, that no treaty or bilateral agreement was ever scrutinised by a Joint Parliamentary Committee, and political discussions between the ruling and allied parties were “no business of the Opposition.”

As for the BJP’s demand for a constitutional amendment to make it mandatory for all governments to get international treaties ratified by Parliament, he said the BJP made similar demands before 1998; between 1998 and 2004 when it was in power it set up a Constitution review committee, which, however, did not make any recommendation on this point. Nor did the NDA government do anything to bring in the amendment.

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