The Manmohan Singh government has taken one step backwards in the hope of going two steps forward after the Left releases the pause-button on the nuclear deal.
DNA Analysis
NEW DELHI: The Manmohan Singh government has taken one step backwards in the hope of going two steps forward after the Left releases the pause-button on the nuclear deal.
This, in effect, sums up the cleverly-worded statement that marks a truce between the Congress and Left. What the Left has got after hard bargaining is an unstated, but obvious, commitment from the government not to finalise the deal until it gets a green signal from the committee that is being set up to examine the Indo-US nuclear agreement.
This is implicit in the last sentence of the joint statement issued on Thursday. It says: “The operationalisation of the deal will take into account the committee’s findings.”
The beauty of the formulation lies in its ambiguity. A senior government source said it leaves the window open to continue ongoing informal talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). A Left leader who spoke on the condition of anonymity also conceded this. ``How can we ask the government to stop informal technical talks?’’ he asked.
What it means is that when the UPA-Left committee winds up its deliberations on the nuclear deal, the government will be ready to apply formally for the documentation it needs to get the agreement ratified by the US Congress.
The government has to finalise a safeguards protocol with the IAEA and obtain a waiver from the NSG to trade in nuclear materials before the US Congress approves the agreement, marking the end of a denial regime under which India could not access nuclear and dual use technology.
The government hopes that the deal can be operationalised while US President George Bush still has enough political capital in Washington to lobby for India with the US Congress.
A government source familiar with the negotiation process said that the safeguards agreement with the IAEA is to be negotiated by a technical committee consisting of officials from the department of atomic energy and the ministry of external affairs on the Indian side and officials from the IAEA secretariat. These talks will continue at the current informal level.
Similarly, the Prime Minister’s special envoy Shyam Saran will continue his discussions with the governments of the NSG countries.
There is a gray area, however. The government and the Left are quiet about the timeframe for the committee to submit its findings for the deal to go ahead. Informally, the two have agreed to fast-track it. But it still means the nuclear deal will be delayed by a couple of months at least.
Former Indian ambassador to the US Lalit Mansingh felt that the next three months were crucial. ``If the US and NSG member countries get the impression that these talks will drag on endlessly, they will lose interest in the deal. Much depends on how seriously the Left and the UPA get down to business in the committee,’’ he said.
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