Govt to go to IAEA on nuke deal

But the government will just read the draft agreement and bring it for Left's approval.

The UPA government will be able to go to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for India-specific nuclear safeguards but might be unable to go ahead with the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement.

At a meeting with the UPA representatives today, the Left parties opened a small window for the government, which has been saying that until it attends an IAEA meeting, it will not be able to address the concerns of the Left.

However, a top Left leader later made it clear that no concessions would be made on the 123 agreement.

"As long as George Bush is the president of the United States and till there are elections in India, we will not allow this deal to go through," he said.

It is clear that the Left is working on a plan to disturb the time-frame for the deal set by India and the United States.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee read out the UPA-Left agreement, saying, "The impact of the provisions of the Hyde Act and the 123 Agreement should also be examined. This will require talks with the IAEA Secretariat for working out the text on the safeguards. The government will proceed with the talks and the outcome will be presented to the committee for its consideration before it finalises its findings."

According to the Left, this means the emissaries will go to Vienna only to see what the IAEA is ready to offer. The government will not even put initials on the draft IAEA agreement and will return with the text. The text will be put before the UPA-Left committee for consideration and nothing will be done without the committee's scrutiny.

CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat defended the party's stand. "Yes, we have entered into an understanding, but this means the operationalisation hasn't been initiated. Instead, we have brought the IAEA safeguards agreement within the purview of the committee, which was not the case earlier," he said.

If the government decides to go ahead with negotiations despite the Left rejecting the draft, "We can assure you that there won't be any government. If the government ignores us and goes on its own, we too will go in an auto-pilot mode (to withdraw support)", said a Left leader.

Summing up the reasons for their change in stand, Left sources said just going to the IAEA to attend a meeting would make no material difference to the deal. They said the government was only allowed to talk with the secretariat and not the all-powerful board of governors.

The committee has fixed no time-frame to finalise its stand on the draft on nuclear safeguards.

This will further allow the Left to shoot down efforts to implement the nuclear deal during the Bush regime. "We are not bothered about the IAEA talks. We are not going to accept the 123 agreement," said a Left leader.

The Left also had to consider the UPA's contention that it would be a major loss of face for the government in the international arena if it did not go to the IAEA. However, Karat denied that Nandigram was used as a pressure point against the Left.

"National policy is not decided on the basis of what's happening in one block in West Bengal," he said.