Govt to brief Parliament on nuclear deal today

Mon, Mar 3 03:46 AM

The government is expected to spell out its plans on Indo-US nuclear deal issue on Monday when external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee makes a statement in Parliament.

Mukherjee's statement on "foreign policy issues" in both Houses of Parliament on Monday, essentially an update on the progress made on the deal, especially the status of negotiations with the IAEA on the safeguards agreement, is likely to signal if the government is willing to throw a challenge to the Left parties on the issue. The 'aam admi' Budget unveiled by finance minister P Chidambaram on Friday has led political circles assume that the Congress may be preparing for early polls, possibly by the end of this year. The assessment is that the Manmohan Singh regime may proceed ahead with the deal, leaving the Left with little option but to withdraw support to the UPA.

The US has already been nudging New Delhi to take steps towards operationalisation of the deal, with US under secretary of state Nicholas Burns even setting a March-end deadline for it. However some senators in the US have contended that this could be extended up to May, after which it would be difficult to get it passed in the US Congress because of lack of time in a Presidential-election year.

Indian and IAEA negotiators have already concluded the fifth round of talks on the safeguards agreement and are reported to have made "considerable progress" towards the agreed text. It is, however, not clear how far the two sides have been able to resolve the differences over issues like India's right to build strategic fuel reserve and acknowledgement of its military nuclear programme by the global atomic watchdog.

The Left parties have warned the government of serious consequences if it operationalised the deal and have demanded that the agreement with IAEA be signed only after it was approved by them.