Karat hooks govt's nuke agenda for a six

NEW DELHI: The confrontation between the government and the Left intensified further on Tuesday with CPM general secretary Prakash Karat inserting a deal-killer clause — put the Indo-US nuclear agreement on ice for the next 6 months — for continued support to the government and Union minister Kapil Sibal telling the ally that “no government worth its salt can afford to renege on an international treaty”.

If Mr Karat’s “six-month freeze” demand was aimed at ensuring that the deal does not come up before the US Congress till it goes into recess in February, Mr Sibal’s assertion was a clear rejection of the Left’s timeline.

The government has been indicating that they will complete the UPA-Left mechanism’s work by mid-October and approach the IAEA for working out the India-specific safeguards soon afterwards. And the two statements only reinforce the perception that the mechanism on the deal as well as the political pact between the two sides are headed for a collapse.

“We are only saying halt the deal for six months. In six months, Parliament can debate the issue. The government can hear Parliament, scientists and experts and take a decision after considering their views. Or else, there will be political crisis. We don’t want a crisis,” Mr Karat said addressing an anti-deal rally here.

The statement comes around a week after the CPM leader had said that the Left had a “few weeks” to go to the people. The message to the government is apparently to put off a possible political flashpoint by going ahead with negotiations in October. With the Left seeing no “meeting point” with the government after the first round of exchanging notes on the deal between the two sides in the committee, any precipitating move in October will provoke the Left to pull the plug.

Mr Karat’s demand comes just a day before the committee is scheduled to hold its meeting to discuss the Left and government notes on the deal. Repeatedly pointing out that the majority in Parliament were against the deal, Mr Karat reminded the government that the CPM was the third-largest party in Parliament and had extended outside support to the UPA to keep the BJP out of power.

“Even now, there is time. In 3-4 weeks, we will try to make the government understand and agree to our viewpoint and not cause more harm to the nation under pressure from George Bush,” the CPM leader added.

Asking the government to choose between the commitment to the American president and the majority voice back home, the CPM leader said “in a democracy, the majority voice has to be heard”. Rejecting the argument that the deal will bring power in abundance, he pointed out that nuclear energy would cost double the rate of power at present and recalled the Enron episode which had left the Maharashtra state electricity board “bankrupt”.

Meanwhile, US ambassador to India, David Mulford, has prodded India to speed up the process of operationalising the nuclear deal, saying “time is of essence”. “Now, we must take the last steps. Time is of essence,” Mr Mulford said while addressing the fourth Indo-US economic summit here.