By Manish Chand, IANS
New Delhi : Undeterred by the Left’s fresh threat on the India-US civilian nuclear deal, the government plans to conclude an India-specific safeguards pact with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by the end of this month.
After concluding the draft safeguards pact, the government will put it up for the Left’s scrutiny as per an understanding with its Communist allies at a joint Left-UPA meeting last month.
Despite renewed warning by Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Prakash Karat that the Left will not allow the government to go ahead with the deal after the IAEA talks, the government is hoping that the Left will come around at the last minute to back the pact.
“We are confident of concluding the safeguards pact with the IAEA by the end of the month,” a top official, who is privy to nuclear negotiations, told IANS.
“We are also hopeful that the Left will eventually see the light and back the deal. Anyway, let’s us first conclude the pact. We will resolve these issues at the next UPA-Left meeting,” the source, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, added.
But this talk of pushing the deal in the face of the Left’s implacable opposition conceals the mood of resignation and fatalism that has set in the government as far as the nuclear deal is concerned.
A team of officials from the Department of Atomic Energy is already in Vienna to negotiate the proposed safeguards pact that will be unique to India and acknowledge the separation of the country’s civilian and military nuclear programme.
According to the July 18, 2005 India-US nuclear understanding, New Delhi will place 14 of its civilian nuclear reactors under international safeguards – while keeping the military programme out of its purview – in return for the resumption of global nuclear cooperation.
The IAEA pact is expected to incorporate fuel supply guarantee, India’s right to build a strategic fuel reserve for the lifetime of its safeguarded nuclear reactors and the right to reprocess spent fuel under a specially-built facility which will be placed under safeguards.
The decision of the Left parties, that prop up the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) from outside, to allow the government to go ahead with the IAEA negotiations last month was seen more as a face-saver for the Manmohan Singh government which has staked so much political capital on the deal.
Domestic political calculations appear to have influenced the Left in granting that belated concession last month. The Communists, under political fire over the alleged capture of Nandigram by armed party cadres in West Bengal, appeared to have softened towards the deal under pressure.
But subsequently the debate in parliament last week brought to the fore the Left’s visceral opposition to the deal, with Communist MPs, including Sitaram Yechury, staging a walkout at the end of the debate.
“We are not fully convinced,” said Yechury with an air of finality, which poured cold water on whatever hopes the government had of operationalising the deal.
Karat’s remarks at a meeting of the state unit of the CPI-M Sunday were clear indication, if any more was needed, that the Left had given the government just a face-saver and nothing more when it relented on IAEA negotiations last month.
“If they still go ahead, we will have to be prepared for mid-term [general] elections,” Karat was reported to have said.
For the first time, Karat spelt out a precise deadline for the government against proceeding further on the nuclear deal.
“When they (officials) come back from talks with IAEA, we will tell them (government) there is no need (to go ahead with the deal). The issue must be resolved by end of December,” he declared.
Karat’s remarks came on the eve of Indian officials leaving for Vienna for a second round of talks with the IAEA.