By IANS
New Delhi : India’s envoy in Washington Ronen Sen apologised unconditionally and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee intervened on his behalf Tuesday but agitated MPs stalled proceedings in both houses of parliament demanding the envoy’s recall for his remarks on the India-US civil nuclear deal.
On its part, the ruling Congress indicated it was committed to the nuclear deal while party sources said they were prepared to face an “inevitable” withdrawal of support from Left allies.
The ruling party was also weighing the possibilities of the political fallout if the Left calls it quits, saying it was never “unready” for elections, even as the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) appeared to be gearing up for an imminent poll.
The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day and the Rajya Sabha, which met briefly at 2 p.m. after an adjournment in the pre-lunch session, was again adjourned for two hours.
The MPs were angry at Sen’s reported remarks to Rediff India Abroad alluding to critics of the India-US nuclear deal as “headless chicken”.
In a statement released by Mukherjee, Sen said: “I had an off-the-record conversation with the correspondent giving some assessments on this subject. A number of the comments were, however, either misunderstood or misquoted or quoted out of context.
“For instance, I did not say that the Hyde Act could not be renegotiated, but said that the bilateral agreement could not be renegotiated,” he added.
“For instance, my comment about ‘running around like headless chicken looking for a comment here or comment there’ was a tactless observation on some of my media friends, and most certainly not with reference to any Honourable Member of Parliament. However, if I have unwittingly hurt any sentiments, I offer my unqualified apologies,” the envoy said.
Before releasing the statement Mukherjee had a long meeting with two Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leaders Sitaram Yechury and Basudeb Acharya to sort out the matter. The full text of the interview was shown to them, even as Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi joined them for lunch.
The CPI-M leaders refused to budge.
“This is not going to satisfy us. If what he has said is true, then we have called for action against him,” Yechury told reporters.
Thus, as the two houses met for the post-lunch session, CPI-M members joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs to demand Sen’s recall.
In the Rajya Sabha, an incensed Yashwant Sinha (BJP), a former external affairs minister, alleged that Sen had “not only called us headless, he has called us brainless”.
As soon as the Lok Sabha met at 11 a.m., opposition and Left MPs were on their legs denouncing Sen’s statement.
They were not satisfied with Mukherjee’s explanation that the envoy’s comments were “totally unwarranted and unacceptable”.
“I have sought a clarification from Sen. The correspondent might have misquoted him,” Mukherjee maintained.
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee assured the MPs that if the remarks had indeed been made, action could be taken against the ambassador.
“Parliament is not that powerless. We can take action but not on the basis of newspaper reports,” he maintained.
Chatterjee accepted Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani’s suggestion that the full text of the interview could be asked for and studied. After that action may be taken against the ambassador.
But MPs from the Left parties and the BJP continued disrupting the proceedings, forcing an exasperated speaker to adjourn the house till 11.30 p.m.
The protests, however, continued when the house resumed, forcing the speaker to adjourn it till 2 p.m. With the pandemonium continuing as the post-lunch session commenced, Chatterjee adjourned the house for the day.
In his statement earlier, Mukherjee said he had contacted the ambassador, who had stated that some of his reported comments had been published “either deliberately or through misunderstanding”.
The correspondent, Aziz Haniffa, had also misquoted the ambassador “in several respects”, the minister said.
Mukherjee added: “In democracy there will always be dissension and divergence of opinions. Nobody can accuse others who hold divergent views. I regret the alleged comments, which have hurt the feelings of honourable members.”
Meanwhile, 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 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 at the 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 Mukherjee, 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.
The Congress 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.”
The CPI-M, which begins a two-day meeting of its central committee Wednesday, will discuss the issue of a snap poll. It has to give assent to the party politburo decision to oppose the nuclear 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.