The Hindu : Front Page : Crucial Left-UPA panel meeting on Friday

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Wednesday, Nov 14, 2007
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Crucial Left-UPA panel meeting on Friday

Vinay Kumar

One way: IAEA draft agreement for committee’s verdict

NEW DELHI: A crucial meeting of the United Progressive Alliance-Left committee on the India-U.S. civilian nuclear deal will be held on November 16 as originally scheduled.

A day after Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said there was a possibility that something would come out of the UPA-Left committee meeting, the government appeared to have taken the signal from Left quarters to indicate a slight softening of their stance against operationalising the 123 agreement with the U.S. “The meeting of UPA-Left committee has been reconvened on November 16,” Pranab Mukherjee, External Affairs Minister and convener of the 15-member panel, told journalists on Tuesday. “We hope a way out will be found at the meeting.” Earlier, the meeting stood postponed, with the government promising to announce a fresh date soon.

“Let us wait for the November 16 meeting,” said Mr. Karat. While briefing reporters on the Polit Bureau meeting of the CPI(M) on Monday, Mr. Karat appeared confident that the nuclear issue would be “sorted out” and the UPA-Left dialogue would focus on how it could be sorted out. The joint committee, constituted to go into the apprehensions over the nuclear deal, has covered a lot of ground in its five meetings held over the past two-and-a-half months.

The Communist Party of India general secretary, A.B. Bardhan, indicated on Monday that the Left might consider allowing the government to discuss with the International Atomic Energy Agency an India-specific safeguards agreement needed for operationalising the nuclear deal but without initialling it.

Informed sources in the Left parties suggested that one way out could be allowing the government to bring the India-specific safeguards draft for consideration before the UPA-Left committee. “If the committee approves it, it is fine, otherwise the draft stands rejected,” these sources said.

However, All-India Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas told The Hindu that Parliament itself could discuss the 123 agreement with the U.S. in totality and come to a view. He contended that it would be in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution. Parliament’s winter session begins on November 15.

The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday alleged that the “climbdown” by the Left on the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal was the result of a “trade off” between the government and the CPI(M) over Nandigram. “The moment they got into political difficulties because of Nandigram,” senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha asserted, “they have come forward to compromise with the government on the deal and offered concessions.”

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