A top leader told Business Standard: "This gesture will not get the government the Left's support to allow it to pursue the deal." Sources point out that privately Mukherjee had mooted a similar proposal to Karat earlier. But the CPI(M) boss did not accept it then and is unlikely to do so now. |
After securing a draft that meets the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) requirements, the next negotiating step for India is to go to the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) that controls civil nuclear commerce. But domestic consensus on the IAEA draft continues to elude the government and is preventing it from taking the next step.
While managers, led by Mukherjee, continue to do their best to wrest a nod from the Left to proceed to the NSG, the Left has shown no sign of relenting. Karat and others in the party believe that since the majority in Parliament has already placed on record its opposition to the deal, the government should bury its dream of signing the 123 Agreement for civilian nuclear co-operation immediately.
Sources say that Mukherjee's offer to take a "sense of the House" in Parliament has been prompted by the thought that the government could go to the NSG with the draft IAEA agreement and then present the complete package to Parliament. Mukherjee has always maintained that only after NSG negotiations are complete along with the IAEA safeguards, can the actual shape of the historic agreement be ascertained.
However, the Left leaders maintain that there is no merit in going to the NSG over the 123 Agreement. They insist that India's nuclear needs could be negotiated in the NSG by signing fresh agreements with France or Russia.
As the Hyde Act binds the 123 Agreement, the Left does not want to see this as the negotiating point at the NSG.
Before the UPA and the Left committee on nuclear deal meets on May 6, Mukherjee's reiteration of his government's offer to take a "sense of the House" comes as an effort to soothe the Left because the government can see another problem looming on the horizon.
According to Mukherjee, although international agreements don't require ratification in the House, their implementation requires supporting legislative amendments.
Mukherjee told Business Standard: "Although we signed the GATT agreement, we had to wait for so many years to derive its benefit as the Patent Act had to be amended."
Meanwhile, Under Secretary for International Affairs in the US Treasury Department David McCormick said here today the US was hopeful of wrapping up the nuclear agreement under the Bush administration.
