Amidst indications that the UPA-Left committee on the nuclear deal issue would be announced on Saturday, the government on Friday let out signals that negotiations with the IAEA and NSG has not been put on hold and that it was free to pursue them.
The assertion was made by a senior Cabinet minister, who played a key role to end the logjam with the Left, with the indication that there was nothing in the UPA-Left statement, which prevented the government from conducting negotiations with the IAEA and the NSG.
?Talks can succeed, Talks can fail. But they cannot be operationalised. Only an act or agreement can be operationalised,? the minister said.
Parliamentary affairs minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi too was quoted by a news agency stating that, ?Negotiations on the Indo-US nuclear deal are not put on hold.? ?How can I say it has been put on hold?? but added that no date had been fixed for negotiations with the IAEA.
The government stand, however, did not face any contradiction from the Left, which, rather surprisingly, refused to be drawn into a debate over semantics and emphasise their claim that the deal had been put on hold. Attempting to come out with a justification, though, the Left maintained that their focus was on ensuring that their concerns with regard to implications of the Hyde Act as well as its impact on the country?s foreign policy were met. As a counter, they also pointed out that the statement has never said that government would proceed ahead with the deal.
In Kolkata, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, too, refrained from taking a combative stand, saying the truce with the Congress over the nuclear issue is not a victory or defeat for any side. He said a committee has been formed to go into the concerns raised by the Left parties. ?Let it do its work. Then we will see,? he said, adding that the CPI(M) would closely study the functioning of the Committee.
Meanwhile, CPI(M) leaders in Parliament contended that the Left had 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 allay our apprehensions,? party leader Mohammed Salim told reporters.
Meanwhile, government managers indicated that the composition of the committee could exceed a dozen members, given that the Left were keen to have six members of their own.