New Delhi
30 August 2007
By VENKATESH KESARI AND RAMESH RAMACHANDRAN
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Government on Thursday
announced that the proposed India-United States civil nuclear cooperation agreement
will not be operationalised till a committee, comprising UPA and Left leaders, arrives at
findings on the implications of Hyde Act and 123 Agreement on India's foreign policy and
self-reliance in the nuclear sector.
Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee said in a brief statement after a meeting
between the Congress and the Left parties at the Prime Minister's 7 Race Course Road
residence that the government has decided to constitute a committee to go into certain
aspects of the nuclear deal in view of the objections raised by the Left.
The statement also read: "1. The composition of the committee will be announced
shortly. 2. The committee will look into certain aspects of the bilateral agreement; the
implications of the Hyde Act on the 123 Agreement and self-reliance in the nuclear
sector; the implications of the nuclear agreement on foreign policy and security
cooperation. 3. The committee will examine these issues. The operationalisation of the
deal will take into account the committee's findings."
Besides Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mr Mukherjee, others who attended the
meeting were Congress party President Sonia Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmed
Patel, Minister of Defence AK Antony, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat, CPI(M)
Politburo member Sitaram Yechury, CPI general Secretary AB Bardhan, CPI National
Secretary D Raja, Debrabrata Biswas of All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) and Abani Roy of
Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP).
The political committee is likely to consist of 11 or 12 members; six from the Left parties
and five or more from the UPA. Sources said that the Left parties will be represented by
CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat, CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury, CPI
General Secretary AB Bardhan, CPI National Secretary D Raja, Debabrata Biswas of
AIFB and Abani Roy of RSP. The UPA, in turn, will be represented by the leaders from the
Congress party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Nationalist Congress Party and Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam. Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee is likely to be its convener.
The committee could invite experts, including scientists and diplomats, for consultations
as and when the need arises.
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Minister PR Das Munshi has in the meantime said that
Parliament can be expected to hold a debate on the nuclear deal on September 10 and
11.
The twin announcements of the setting up of committee and the freeze on the next step
for operationalising the nuclear deal signalled a hasty retreat for the UPA after Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh dared the Left parties to withdraw support to the government.
After over a month-long standoff, the government was compelled to press the pause
button in the wake of sustained and united opposition from the Left parties on the
controversial India-US bilateral agreement on civil nuclear cooperation.
Emerging from the meeting, Mr Debabrata Biswas told reporters that Mr Mukherjee's
announcement was very clear about the government's intent and commitment to not
proceed further with the 123 Agreement till the committee concludes its review. He said:
"Operationalising of agreement will halt till committee's findings come." He indicated
that time-frame will be decided later. "Let the [composition of the] committee be
announced," Mr Biswas said, "then after the first meeting we can finalise the whole time
table." Asked whether the crisis for the government is now over, Mr Biswas replied: "We
never said government in crisis. We said country in crisis. We were concerned about the
country."
CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury, in turn, said: "Now we will take up all issues
in the committee. If those issues are resolved, then it is fine. If they are not addressed,
we will take it (protest) forward at that stage".
CPI General Secretary AB Bardhan and CPI National Secretary D Raja suggested that the
announcement was reasonably clear that the government cannot go ahead with the 123
Agreement till the committee has evaluated the implications of the Hyde Act. "We have
not left it to their will," Mr Raja told this newspaper, citing relevant portion from the
announcement that said the operationalisation of the deal will take into account the
committee's findings.
Mr Debabrata Biswas later told this newspaper that the Left parties have said from the
beginning that the Hyde Act was "very much applicable" on India and the Hyde Act is not
"America's business", as the government liked to believe. He accordingly welcomed the
decision of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Government to look into the implications
of the Hyde Act. "Our point is vindicated," Mr Biswas said. "Today's draft also makes the
other terms of reference very much clear," he said, referring to the incorporation of the
committee's intent to study the implications of the nuclear agreement on India's
independent foreign policy. Mr Biswas read from the operational part of the
announcement to reiterate: "Till the findings of the committee come, they cannot move
forward."
Ever since the details of the 123 Agreement were made public, the Left parties had
demanded that the deal should not be operationalised while the government maintained
that there was no going back on the issue. Matters took a serious turn when Prime
Minister Singh dared the Left parties to withdraw support to the government on the issue
and the Left hit back, warning of serious consequences if the government went ahead
with the deal.
Prior to Thursday's meeting at the Prime Minister's residence, the Left leaders met
among themselves. The Core Group of the Congress party also met earlier in the day.
Sources told this newspaper that the Left parties had communicated their stand to the
Congress leadership on Wednesday evening. The core group of the Congress party met
on Thursday morning to discuss the 'draft communique' from the Left parties and
decided to send the approved draft back to the Left parties for their approval. Sitaram
Yechury met with the Prime Minister soon after the Core Group of the Congress party
wound up its meeting. The leaders of all the four Left parties then regrouped in the
afternoon, before travelling to the Prime Minister's residence for the all-important
meeting in which the decision to set up a committee and to not operationalise the nuclear
deal for some time were formalised.
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