The Hindu : Front Page : No change in Left stand

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 18, 2007
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No change in Left stand

Vinay Kumar

Talks with NSG not even on the horizon as yet, says Karat

Outcome of talks with IAEA also under panel purview
123 agreement, Hyde Act not acceptable: Left

NEW DELHI: Notwithstanding the optimism in the United Progressive Alliance government after the Left parties allowed India-specific safeguards talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Saturday reiterated that there was no change their basic position that the 123 agreement with the United States should not be operationalised.

Asked about the remarks made by the National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan that the concession would enable the government to wrap up negotiations with the IAEA and get the Nuclear Suppliers Group clearance before taking the nuclear deal to the U.S. Congress, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said negotiations with the NSG were “not even on the horizon as yet.”

“As far as we are concerned, the UPA-Left committee meeting on Friday decided that after the government goes to the IAEA for safeguards negotiations, it will come back with the results to the committee, which will draw its findings and come to some conclusion on the text finalised but not initialled with the IAEA,” Mr. Karat told The Hindu here.

He said Parliament was also going to discuss the nuclear deal and the government would take the debate into account.

The 15-member UPA-Left committee has covered much ground relating to the Hyde Act, the 123 agreement, foreign policy and security matters at its six meetings since September. The panel will now have under its purview the “outcome” of the IAEA talks as well. The draft safeguards agreement would become part of its terms of reference.

Key question

Sources in the Left parties pointed to the agreement with the UPA that the findings of the committee would be taken into consideration before the deal was operationalised. But the key question here is: will there be agreed findings on the UPA-Left committee?

A senior Left party source said an “honourable exit route” was provided to the government as it pleaded that it was keen on going to the IAEA for talks and that its credibility in the international arena would be dented if it did not approach the agency.

In fact, the sources said, the Left did not want the deal operationalised till the scheduled general elections in 2009 and certainly not as long as George Bush remained American President. “The 123 agreement and the Hyde Act are not acceptable to us.”

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