For the Left parties, the meeting of the political committee on Monday was neither cordial nor constructive even though the government claimed the other way. Sources in the Left told FE that they could not find a meeting point so far, as the government ??persistently wanted?? them to let it continue with the India-specific safeguard negotiations with the IAEA on the Indo-US agreement.
CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat rejected the government?s suggestion that a discussion in Parliament could happen, if the government was allowed to launch the India-specific safeguard negotiations at IAEA. The two sides also differed on what ?operationalisation? meant. According to the government, operationalisation starts only after the final signing of the accord. However, for Left it meant the first step of IAEA talks putting the deal into operation.
Left also said that they will continue to cooperate only if the government firmly puts the deal on hold. They, however, said that they did not expect the government to come out with such a public assurance. In party circles, this stance is being seen as a strategy adopted by the Left to buy some more time from the government. They believe that by prolonging the committee meetings, they can also delay the process of operationalising the deal.
“We were not expecting a written assurance. The government had said in the beginning and repeated on Monday that the finding of the committee will be taken into consideration before operationalising the deal,” a Left member in the political committee said.
“But Left support is out of question, if the committee reached in a conclusion that the deal is good for the country. Whatever be the finding of the committee, the Left may agree to disagree with it. We will not change our position on the deal,” a senior Left leader told FE. The Left also handed yet another note on foreign policy to the government in the meeting.
