Left-UPA meet on n-deal postponed

NEW DELHI: In what could further dampen the spirits of the nuclear deal enthusiasts, the government has put off the meeting of the Left-UPA panel on the Indo-US nuclear agreement to June 18. This is the second shocker for the pro-deal quarters in the past two days. Their hopes about the government going ahead with the deal were revived when the media came out reports about the prime minister planning a meeting of senior officials involved with the nuclear agreement. Government leaders have already denied any plans for such an exercise.

The legacy-seeking sections in the government had laid a lot of premium on the conclusion of the nuclear agreement. The Congress leadership, which had initially expressed its willingness to back the government on the issue, has not been showing much enthusiasm. With the Congress��� defeat in Karnataka rendering the government lame duck, there is realisation in the party that it cannot afford to anger the constituents of UPA alliance.

The Left has been blaming the popular discontent against the Congress on the government���s reluctance to stick to the CMP. ���The differences within the UPA have arisen and will continue to arise on issues that are not contained in the CMP which the UPA government seeks to implement,��� the CPM said on Thursday.

Coming back to the negotiations on the deal, those involved in the exercise have begun conceding that a forward movement would now be quite difficult. The government had proposed to the Left at the last meeting of the committee to allow it to proceed with the safeguards agreement with the IAEA using the argument that timeline for the nuclear deal had already been disrupted. The Left, however, is not buying this and is expected to stick to its stand against finalising the safeguards agreement.

The panel will now hold its deliberations after the meeting of the IAEA board of governors from June 2 to 5 where the safeguards agreement was to be approved. The government had put off the May 28 meeting on May 26, a day after the Karnataka poll results. It was earlier postponed to June 11.