By Liz Mathew, IANS
New Delhi : India Monday appeared headed for an early parliamentary election with the government and the communist leadership exchanging sharp words over the proposed talks with the UN atomic energy agency on the contentious India-US nuclear deal.
Rejecting the government’s plea for go-ahead to the India specific safeguard talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat warned External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee that if the government went ahead with the talks, it should be prepared to “face the consequences.”
A late evening fire fighting exercise between the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the Left leaders failed to break the stalemate over the issue.
A 45-minute meeting, held at Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence, and attended by Mukherjee, Defence Minister A.K.Antony, Karat and CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechury, discussed a possible rapprochement but did not find a breakthrough.
Earlier, Karat turned down Mukherjee’s suggestion that the Left’s objections could be included in the IAEA talks.
Mukherjee said the government should be allowed to begin crucial discussions with the IAEA to enable the 45-nation Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG) to give India the go-ahead for the implementation of the India-US civil nuclear deal.
“Talks with IAEA are unacceptable. Talks with IAEA will amount to operationalisation of the 123 agreement,” Karat is believed to have told Mukherjee, who met him Monday evening.
Mukherjee’s plea came on the eve of IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei’s visit to the capital, during which he is expected to hold informal talks with the government on the nuclear deal.
With the communists, on whose parliamentary support the government is dependent for its survival, continuing their hard line on the nuclear deal that has now led to a confrontation, early elections now seem a distinct possibility.
The talk of elections was further accentuated with the Election Commission ordering the publication of new electoral rolls by mid-January 2008.
“The Election Commission has directed all the chief electoral officers (CEOs) of states to get the electoral rolls of 2008 published by mid-January 2008,” the poll panel said in a statement issued after the Chief Election Commission (CEC) held a review meeting with CEOs of 14 states and union territories from southern and western India.
Although it was termed a routine exercise, the announcement came on a day when the communists hit back at Congress president Sonia Gandhi for her attack on critics of the nuclear deal, and said that India was capable of developing nuclear energy “primarily on a self-reliant basis”.
Reacting a day after Gandhi’s comments in Haryana, the Left parties said there was no need to “surrender our vital interests to America” on the plea of nuclear energy.
A Left leader, who did not wish to be identified, told IANS here that after Gandhi’s public criticism, there was no possibility of any rapprochement between the two sides over the nuclear deal.
In another significant development, Gandhi met President Pratibha Patil at Rashtrapati Bhavan Monday. Although party leaders claimed that Gandhi, who had returned from New York on Thursday, was briefing the president on her speech made at the UN General Assembly, sources indicated that the imminent general elections also came up for discussion during the meeting.
In a joint statement reacting to Gandhi’s attack, the CPI-M and its three allies said: “The Left parties categorically reiterate that the nuclear deal with the US is against the interests of India.
“Those who advocate the deal should know that India is capable of developing nuclear energy primarily on a self-reliant basis. We need not surrender our vital interests to America on this plea.”
However, the Left’s statement went against the conciliatory tone of veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu in Kolkata Monday. Basu told reporters: “What Sonia Gandhi said is not right. It is my wish that both of us (United Progressive Alliance -UPA- and Left) should stay together for some more time. So, I personally do not want early elections. But if the Congress so wants, we are ready for it.”
He also said that Pranab Mukherjee, who met him Sunday at his Kolkata residence, had requested him to ensure that talks between the UPA and the Left on the nuclear deal do not break down.
“I have asked Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury to listen to Mukherjee and see whether we can work out a compromise or allow them some concessions on the issue,” he added.
“The minister has explained to me the compulsion to go to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for an India-specific safeguards agreement, which we do not want. But the minister told me he will try to explain to the IAEA the objections from the UPA allies and try to seek some concessions,” Basu said.
The 15-member UPA-Left nuclear committee, formed to address the concerns raised by the communists over the nuclear deal, is meeting for its fourth meeting Tuesday.
If the Left, that has warned the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government of “serious consequences” if it went ahead with the nuclear deal, withdraws support, the government would be reduced to a minority.
On Sunday, addressing a rally in a Haryana town, Gandhi said that the nuclear deal with the US was “necessary for the country to keep the pace of development going”.
“Those who have been creating hindrances in the implementation of development programmes were enemies of not only the Congress government but also of the common people. Therefore, such elements should be given a befitting reply,” she said.
Although the Congress later clarified that Gandhi’s remarks were made in the context of Haryana politics, sources both in the Congress and the Left indicated that a divorce between the two sides appeared imminent.
“There is no point of convergence now. We both are going at two different directions now,” the Left leader told IANS.
Congress sources said the party was ready for fresh elections. Political observers feel general elections were likely in early 2008.