Ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament, to be convened from next week, the government on Thursday intensified moves to take political parties into confidence on the recently concluded Indo-US civilian nuclear deal even as criticism over the 123 Agreement is anticipated from some quarters.
As part of the exercise, national security advisor MK Narayanan briefed Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha LK Advani on Thursday on the salient features of the 123 Agreement. Advani was not present in the country last week when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held discussions with his predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee and senior BJP leaders Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Rajnath Singh and Arun Shourie.
The government has already held similar discussions with leaders of the Left parties.
That the government was likely to face criticism on the deal in Parliament next week was evident with the Third Front-the UNPA?announcing on Thursday that it would oppose the agreement as it would result in ?mortgaging India?s sovereignty?.
The newly formed eight-party alliance said it would put up a joint front in Parliament and its leaders would meet on August 9 to finalise a strategy.
?The 123 Agreement is a verbal jugglery. It is clearly a pro-American and ?anti-Bharat? agreement,? Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Amar Singh told reporters here while slamming the Congress-led UPA government?s foreign and economic policies.
Accusing the government of pledging the country?s ?self-reliance, sovereignty and policies? to Washington, he said the UNPA will expose the Manmohan Singh administration in Parliament.
Protests against the deal were also launched on Thursday by the Bharatiya Janshakti Party headed by Uma Bharti, who, along with her supporters, courted arrest in the Capital after being prevented from marching to the Prime Minister?s Office.
Describing the agreement as a ?killer agreement? and ?detrimental?, Bharti alleged in a memorandum to the PM that India?s nuclear independence has ?been pawned to the US?.
However, more than the aggressive stand displayed by the UNPA and the Bhartiya Janshakti Party, the government is crossing its fingers over the response from the Left parties as well as the Opposition. Both of them have refrained from giving a detailed response, stating that they would want to go through the text of the agreement first before firming up their views.
According to sources, the government has now decided to release the text of the agreement on Friday, to enable the Opposition and Left parties to study the document. Government managers on Thursday said they were hopeful that the agreement would satisfy them.
According to sources, the agreement, in about 12 pages and containing 20 clauses, does not make any reference to nuclear testing by India, thereby ensuring that the self imposed moratorium on testing is not converted into a legal commitment.
On the reprocessing issue, sources said the agreement makes clear provision for a separate facility to reprocess spent fuel, which will come under the IAEA safeguards.
