The Hindu : Front Page : Government can go to IAEA

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Saturday, Nov 17, 2007
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Government can go to IAEA

Vinay Kumar

But must submit text to Committee’s findings

NEW DELHI: The way has been cleared for the United Progressive Alliance government to enter into talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Secretariat for “working out the text of the India-specific Safeguards Agreement” that it wants –- but a crucial condition has been mandated for what follows.

The “outcome,” that is, the text of the agreement, which will not even be initialled, let alone signed, will be presented to the UPA-Left Committee on the India-U.S. Civil Nuclear Cooperation “for its consideration before it finalises its findings.” The Committee will examine the “impact of the provisions of the Hyde Act and the 123 agreement on the IAEA Safeguards Agreement” and take this aspect into account before finalising “its findings.” In turn, “the findings of the Committee will be taken into account before the operationalisation of the India-U.S. Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement.” This is what the official press release read out by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is the convenor of the 15-member Committee, states.

Friday’s 90-minute meeting was attended by all members of the committee except Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, who was out of the national capital.

Later, talking to journalists, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat, who is a key player in these deliberations, confirmed that the outcome of the talks with the IAEA would be brought before the Committee for its consideration and findings. “The text will not be initialled by the government negotiators,” Mr. Karat explained. “The government will come back to the committee, which in turn will examine the text and it will form part of its findings.”

Interestingly, examining the impact of the Hyde Act and the 123 agreement on a draft “India-specific” safeguards agreement with the IAEA was not part of the original terms of reference of the Committee. However, it appears to be the political formula crafted in intensive consultations between the Congress and Left leaders to navigate a way out of the political crisis that has developed over the government’s efforts to operationalise the 123 agreement.

Since the CPI(M) and other Left parties are implacably opposed to the nuclear deal as a key component of a strategic partnership with the United States, the most likely outcome of going to the IAEA Secretariat for talks is that the deal will be allowed to die in Committee so that the minority UPA government can survive.

No date has been fixed for the next meeting of the committee but it is unlikely to be held before Parliament’s winter session concludes on December 7. It is already clear that when the nuclear deal is discussed in Parliament, a clear majority will oppose it.

Informed Left sources noted that the government had been wanting to go to the IAEA to negotiate the India-specific safeguards agreement while the Left stand had been that going to the IAEA meant operationalising the 123. Friday’s meeting formalised what had been politically agreed upon. The government would go for safeguards talks; report back to the committee, which would then exercise its jurisdiction over the text; and the fate of the deal would depend on the committee’s final judgment. The government’s talks with the IAEA secretariat are expected to take at least two weeks.

In Friday’s meeting, the Left parties sought an explanation from the government as to why it did not sign an intergovernmental agreement with Russia for four additional 1000 MWe nuclear reactors for the Koodankulam power plant in Tamil Nadu during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent visit to Moscow. ``We did raise the issue of the government not signing the agreement with Russia,” said D. Raja, MP and national secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI). The brief explanation offered by the government was that it had not reached the stage of negotiating IAEA safeguards and seeking an exemption from NSG guidelines.

Left party sources confirmed to The Hindu that there was absolutely no change in their basic opposition to the operationalisation of the 123. They reiterated the view that the Hyde Act would be applicable to the 123 agreement whereas in the government’s opinion it was not applicable.

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