By IANS
New Delhi : Confusion over the Indo-US civil nuclear deal continued Friday with the government announcing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) talks are not part of “operationalisation” of the deal while Left claimed that New Delhi cannot proceed till a political panel comes out with its findings on the pact.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said operationalisation of the deal means “putting into effective implementation”.
“The IAEA talks cannot be a part of operationalisation. Talks may succeed or may fail. Operationalisation means that you put the deal into effective implementation,” Mukherjee told reporters in his parliament house office.
On Thursday evening, Mukherjee announced that a joint committee of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and Left representatives would look into “certain aspects of the bilateral agreement, the implications of the Hyde Act on the 123 agreement (between New Delhi and Washington) and (on) self-reliance in the nuclear sector, the implications of the nuclear agreement on foreign policy and security cooperation.
“The operationalisation of the deal will take into account the committee’s findings,” he had said after a meeting with Left leaders at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence.
However, the Left and the government define “operationalisation” differently.
“Yes, it includes the negotiations with the IAEA also,” Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Mohammed Salim said.
“The Left has been asking the government not to go in haste over the deal. There is no change in our stance,” Salim, who faced a volley of questions from the media over Thursday’s announcement, said.
While Left claimed that the government had bowed down to their demand of “pausing” the negotiations till the their concerns are addressed in the committee, the government says it bought more time from the Left.
“But we will sign the deal before we go for next general elections,” said a senior Congress leader.
Mukherjee also has emphasised that there was no word saying “the deal is put on hold” in the statement that he read out after the UPA-Left meeting at the prime minister’s residence Thursday.
The Left’s warning that there would be serious consequences if the government went ahead with nuclear agreement with Washington has threatened the Manmohan Singh-led government’s stability as it depends on the four-party Left bloc for support in parliament.
The committee, which is expected to be a 14-member panel with six members from the Left and others from the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), is seen as a time-buying mechanism to “convince” the Left that the deal with the US would not affect country’s independent foreign policy and indigenous nuclear weaponry programme.
The formation of the committee had ended a standoff between the government and the Left, which is vehemently opposed to the nuclear deal saying that it would not be in the national interest.
However, CPI-M leaders indicated that the government, during its marathon meetings Thursday, has given them “clear assurance” that New Delhi would not proceed with India-specific safeguard protocol negotiations in the mid-September IAEA meeting.
“We will go by the assurance given to us by the UPA leadership, not by media reports,” Salim said.
However, government sources said Thursday’s statement read out by Mukherjee was “smartly drafted so that everybody has the scope to interpret it in the way they want.”