By IANS
New Delhi : India’s ruling Congress Tuesday indicated that it was committed to the Indo-US civil nuclear deal while party sources said they were prepared to face an “inevitable” withdrawal of support from Left allies.
Informed sources in the government said that they would go ahead with the deal despite the firm stand that the Left parties have taken against it. They also said that Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar would attend an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference in Vienna next month and would continue New Delhi’s negotiations with regard to the agreement.
However, sources in the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which along with its three allies has asked the government not to make the deal operational, reiterated that the Left would pull the plug if the government takes up negotiations in the mid-September IAEA meeting.
“We are waiting for the government’s next move on this. It has not responded to the Left’s unanimous stand against the deal. But if it goes ahead with it, we will be forced to take the extreme step,” a politburo member told IANS.
Talking to reporters after a discussion with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, senior CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said the Left was not against the government’s participating in the IAEA meeting, but reiterated that there should not be “any negotiations on the India-specific safeguards with regard to the Indo-US nuclear deal”.
He said his party would have no objection to India participating in the IAEA meeting as a member country in the annual general meeting as it does for Unesco and Unicef. The 51st annual general conference of the UN atomic watchdog will be held Sep 17-21 and the pre-conference meetings on Sep 15 and 16.
But Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters that there was “no change in the government’s stance”. Though he declined to elaborate, party sources indicated that the government would send its envoy for discussing the India-specific safeguards. In his daily briefing, Singhvi focussed on the advantages of the nuclear deal, giving a clear indication that the government was ready to risk the Left’s withdrawal of support.
“The guiding polestar in whatever we have done or whatever we are going to do is the national interest. We do not negotiate out of fear,” Singhvi told reporters.
Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal also said: “The government is well poised, and the deal would get through.
“Customers should also allow the seller to sell. They should understand it’s not just about the civilian nuclear deal. It’s about agriculture, it’s about medicine, it’s about increasing the shelf life of a product through irradiation technology.
“It’s about sharing technology… that was denied to us in the last 60 years. And this can only happen through effective marketing,” the minister maintained.
The ruling party is weighing the possibilities of the political fallout if the Left calls it quits.
It feels that even if the Left withdraws support, it would not back a no-confidence motion brought by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “The government can continue as a minority government with the Left extending support to some people-friendly legislations – a scenario that gives us enough time to prepare for a poll,” said a minister, adding that no party including the Left was prepared for elections now.
The Congress leaders indicated that there were non-BJP parties ready to extend support to the government, but they would “have to pay a heavy price” to keep them in the fold.
Asked whether the party was ready for elections, Singhvi said: “We are never unready for elections.”
Meanwhile, the CPI-M appeared to be gearing up for an imminent poll.
The central committee of the party, which begins its two-day meeting Wednesday, will discuss the issue. It has to give assent to the party politburo decision to oppose the deal.
The CPI-M has said they had certain serious objections to the Hyde Act and unless those concerns were evaluated, the government should not go ahead with making operational the deal.
The meeting agenda includes an assessment of the party’s situation in states in case an election is called for.