The much awaited UPA-Left political committee that met here on Monday agreed not to operationalise the nuclear deal till the next meeting on November 16. But the bigger question of taking a judgemental call on ultimately proceeding ahead with the Indo-US nuclear agreement was once again left to the Congress leadership.
??The nuclear deal will not be operationalised till panel meets again,?? external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee said at the end of the two hour long meeting. There were no categoric assurances made that the deal would be put on perpetual hold?a statement which Mukherjee read out merely reiterated the earlier stand that operationalisation of the nuclear deal would take into account the committee’s findings. The Left had sought such an assurance in the wake of recent comments by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi at the HT leadership summit where they had stated that they did not foresee any advancement of Lok Sabha polls.
Mukherjee, in fact, initiated the discussions by bringing on record the statements made by the PM and Gandhi on the deal, which was seen as an obvious attempt to soothen the ruffled Left feelings. However, Monday’s meeting refrained to address the critical question of whether the government should go ahead with the deal or not, was evident from CPI general secretary AB Bardhan’s remarks.??The future of the deal is an open-ended question, till we arrive at a decision. We hope we will reach a decision in the next meeting,?? he said. In a possible hint that the government could proceed ahead with operationalisation and this would be opposed by the Left, he added: ??What ever may be the finding, we may agree to disagree??.
Mukherjee also said the deliberations in the committee were held in a constructive and cordial atmosphere. He said the discussions covered the implications of the proposed Indo-US bilateral pact on civil nuclear co-operation, including the implications of the Hyde Act on India?s nuclear programme and its pursuit of independent foreign policy. Congress leaders later indicated that the winter session of Parliament may be convened slightly earlier than scheduled in view of the Assembly polls in Gujarat and HP and the opportunity could be utilised to discuss the N-deal.
Earlier in the day, news channels reported that the PM told leaders of his party and the allies over a strategy session before the UPA-Left meeting that he felt let down by the allies’ backing out on the deal which was cleared by the Cabinet. This was strongly denied by both the PMO and the Congress party.