New Delhi, August 31
A day after the UPA and the Left parties called a truce over the contentious Indo-US civil nuclear deal, external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee said it is incorrect to say the nuke deal has been put on hold.

“We never said the deal is on hold,” Mukherjee told mediapersons today but did not clarify whether India will go ahead with its negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for the implementation of the nuclear agreement.

While the government maintained there was nothing in the UPA-Left’s statement which prevented it from pursuing its negotiations, the Left parties maintained the statement is a vindication of their stand, CPI general secretary A.B.Bardhan said the UPA’s decision to set up a committee was an acceptance that their concerns were serious, adding that the statement is clear when it says ''the operationalisation of the deal will take into account the committee's findings.''

The UPA and the Left parties have different perceptions on what is meant by the term “operationalisation”. While the ruling coalition believes that the deal will be operationalised only when the US Congress ratifies it, the Left parties are of the view that negotiations with the IAEA and NSG are tantamount to operationalising the deal.

“Operationalisation means when the deal is put into effect,” said Pranab, stating that talks with countries can either succeed or fail but they cannot be implemented, thus suggesting that the deliberations with the NSG will continue.

Referring to the BJP’s demand for a JPC, Mukherjee said the proposed committee is a UPA-Left panel and is not a government body, which is why the decision on its constitution was taken by the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. All UPA partners were consulted on the formation of the committee, he said, adding that Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke personally to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi while he spoke to the RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and NCP leader Sharad Pawar.The opposition will be taken into confidence about the deal in Parliament when the matter comes up for debate, he said.

The minister said there was no provision in the Constitution for the ratification of international treaties by Parliament, recalling that even when the Indo-Soviet friendship treaty was signed, Parliament was merely informed about it. He dismissed the BJP’s charge that there was a contradiction between the PM’s statement in Parliament, saying the nuke deal is on course and Mukherjee’s statement that the deal is on hold. “We never said the deal is on hold,” Mukherjee said, adding that it is the BJP which has been changing its stand on this issue everyday.

New Delhi, August 31
Despite its truce with the Left, the UPA government continued to face the heat in Parliament on the deal today, with the Opposition demanding its share in the political negotiations.

Members of two major Opposition blocks, the NDA and the UNPA, stalled proceedings in both Houses over the nuclear deal.

The government nuked two major demands of the Opposition, setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to review the nuclear deal and withdrawal of a high-powered UPA-Left Committee to study different aspects of the 123 agreement.

The BJP gave a notice of breach of privilege in the Lok Sabha against the government for announcing the formation of the committee outside Parliament when it is in session. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said he would take a decision on the privilege notice given by deputy leader of the Opposition Vijay Kumar Malhotra.

The NDA and the UNPA are angry that they have been left out of the mechanism.

However, the Opposition wants the government to form a JPC on the issue, a demand that has been rejected by the Centre.

When asked about the issue, external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee said, "It is an internal matter between the UPA and the Left. I strongly refuse a JPC on the Indo-US nuclear deal."

Malhotra demanded that the committee should be immediately withdrawn, as it was not “a family matter”. Pranab was quick to dismiss the demand, saying that the committee did not have any official status and it was an internal arrangement between the UPA and its allies.

Parliamentary affairs minister P R Dasmunsi gave a tongue-in-cheek advice to the BJP to form an internal committee to remove the confusion on the issue.

Members of the NDA and the Third Front trooped into the well of the House and disrupted proceedings, triggering repeated adjournments.

Papers and Special Mentions were tabled in the Lok Sabha amid din and minority affairs minister A R Antulay laid a copy of the action taken report on the Sachar Committee recommendations on social, economic and educational status of minorities. The opposition members also did not allow home minister Shivraj Patil to reply to the debate on flood situation in the country.

In the Rajya Sabha, which was adjourned twice over the issue, Sushma Swaraj and M Venkaiah Naidu (both BJP) said the announcement about constitution of the UPA-Left panel on the nuclear deal amounted to contempt of the House.

As far as the government is concerned, its strategy on the nuclear deal is clear. Its informal consultations with the IAEA and the NSG will continue. Simultaneously, it will lay the ground for a safeguards agreement with the IAEA and Prime Minister’s special envoy Shyam Saran will continue his lobbying missions with nuclear supplier countries.

When the UPA-Left panel gives its report and if the Left agrees, the government will look to formalise safeguards with the IAEA by November 22. It will seek a formal NSG clearance by December and a US Congress vote between January and March.

From the indications, the government will go ahead with the operationalisation of the nuclear deal even if the Left remains as adamant as ever after the UPA-Left panel findings.

Kolkata/New Delhi, August 31
The CPM on Friday said the truce between the Left parties and the Congress on the nuclear issue is not a victory or defeat for any side. It also said the Left parties behaved responsibly during the crisis and that it did not precipitate it. “This is not a victory or defeat of any side,” said CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat when asked by reporters whether the Centre had got a reprieve following the truce with the Left parties.

He said a committee has been formed to go into the concerns raised by the Left parties and “let it do its work. Then we will see.” The party would closely study the functioning of the Committee, he added.

His party leaders in Parliament said in Delhi that the Left has behaved responsibly during the crisis. “The Left parties have behaved very responsibly. There was a crisis facing the nation and the Left did not precipitate it. We never said ‘stop this or scrap that’. We only said ally our apprehensions,” party leader Mohd Salim told reporters.

Salim said “Government’s decision yesterday to set up this committee shows that it thinks that our concerns are serious in nature and our apprehensions are valid.”

Replying to a spate of questions on whether Thursday’s statement indicated that the government could start talks on the deal, he said “... Government has also not said they would proceed (with operationalising the deal) violating this understanding. We are also asking it not to be in a hurry.”

Expressing satisfaction over the statement, Salim said “our apprehensions still exist. The government and its political leadership also realise that. Let the Committee be constituted, let it start working.”

He said the long-term interests of the nation have to be taken into consideration and a cost-benefit analysis made on how far the nuclear deal would go to help India.

Attacking the BJP for not consulting its partners to resolve issues during the erstwhile NDA rule, Salim’s party colleague Basudeb Acharia said the proposed UPA-Left committee to resolve issues connected with Indo-US nuclear deal was not a government panel but a political one.

“They (BJP) never consulted NDA partners when they were in power, but took decisions on issues in a bipartisan manner. ... They are now demanding that major international agreements be ratified by Parliament. They were in government for six years but never made any such move,” he said.

Reacting to BJP’s demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the matter, Acharia asserted that “never before has any international agreement been scrutinised by Parliament”.

Acharia said the Left and UPA have been holding discussions on a number of issues like Patents Amendment bill, Special Economic Zones, FDI in insurance sector and Pension regulatory authority.

There has been a political mechanism in existence which has played a role in resolving these issues. “For example, the pension regulatory authority bill has not been been brought so far owing to differences,” Acharia said, indicating that the proposed UPA-Left panel on the nuclear issue was another such political mechanism.

He attacked the saffron party for disrupting parliamentary proceedings on Friday on “flimsy ground” of seeking representation in a political committee. — PTI