The Left parties put brakes on the controversial Indo-US nuclear deal by warning the government of 'serious consequences' of operationalising it.
NEW DELHI: The CPI(M) held its fire and did not announce any drastic action at the end of its two-day meeting of the politburo.
Instead, it lobbed the nuclear ball back to the Manmohan Singh government by reiterating that the 123 agreement should not be operationalised.
For the first time, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat came out clear on the Left’s stand regarding the Indo-US nuclear deal.
He said the government should not proceed with the next two stages, which are negotiations for a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency and a waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group for the supply of nuclear material.
While the CPI(M) refrained from taking the ultimate step of withdrawing support, there was an implicit threat in the statement issued by the politburo.
“It is for the Congress party to decide on the matter which will have serious consequences for the government and the country,” it said.
The measured tone and tenor of the statement appears to be a result of several days of behind-the-scene negotiations between the government’s main trouble shooter external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, and Left interlocutors, West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury.
The stand adopted by the politburo has lowered the temperature for the time being and seems to have given both sides enough elbow room to try and resolve their differences over the nuclear deal.
Senior Congress leaders like Mukherjee admit that the government and the Left differ on the 123 agreement as well as what constitutes operationalising it.
As regards the 123 agreement, though the politburo has not entirely killed the deal it has certainly blocked it for the moment by asking the government not to proceed with the next stage of negotiations.
But it has opened a window for the future by asking the government to evolve a national consensus on the deal and then proceed with the operationalisation.
The government, on the other hand, is of the opinion that the deal becomes operational only after it goes through the stages of negotiations with the IAEA, the NSG and finally the ratification by the US Congress. It is keen therefore that the process should not be halted at this point even if the actual operationalisation is put off for a while to satisfy the Left.
The politburo’s decision has put the UPA government and the PM in a bit of a quandary. Manmohan Singh has virtually staked his political goodwill and the fate of the government on the nuclear deal. The government has also been touting it as the centre piece of its foreign policy.
Soon after Karat enunciated his party’s stand, the external affairs minister summoned the foreign secretary to find out the implications of what would happen if the deal is put on hold.
The core committee of the Congress party met in the evening at the Prime Minister’s residence to decide the Congress party’s response. The UPA leadership has already met railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and has started consulting other constituents of the ruling combine before finalizing its position on the issue.
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