By IANS
New Delhi : The Left parties are expected to give the government their formal approval for talks with the IAEA, crucial to India’s nuclear deal with the US, at the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-Left nuclear committee meeting Friday afternoon.
The government is expected to formally request its Left allies, who have been opposing negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to give a go ahead to initiate discussions on India-specific safeguards at the sixth meeting of the 15-member nuclear committee.
“Whatever proposals come before the committee, the Left leaders will consider them and on this basis a new stand may emerge,” said Sitaram Yechury, a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo member.
According to Left sources, at a luncheon meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee last week, both CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat and his CPI counterpart A.B. Bardhan agreed to let the government go to the IAEA for talks.
However, the communists had sought an assurance from the government that the negotiating team should return to the Mukherjee-headed committee before finalising the draft.
“Our flexible stand will be subjected to the government’s reply to the Left’s questions on IAEA talks,” said a senior CPI-M leader who is also a member of the committee.
The Left had asked the government to ensure uninterrupted fuel supply, full civilian cooperation and perpetuity safeguards for nuclear reactors in the negotiations.
Though CPI-M leaders refused to confirm it, Left sources also claimed that the government has agreed to seek tough concessions from the IAEA in order to get a honourable exit from the deal.
The CPI-M-led Left parties, which extend crucial parliamentary support to the Congress-led UPA government, have been opposing the nuclear agreement with Washington saying it would undermine the country’s independent foreign policy and indigenous nuclear programme.
They have also warned of “serious consequences” if the government went ahead with its negotiations with the IAEA on an India-specific safeguard protocol before addressing the concerns expressed by the Left parties.