Nuclear Thread - 3

[Guest]

<b>Govt hands tied on deal</b>

New Delhi, March 19: <b>Pranab Mukherjee today expressed the government’s helplessness over the Indo-US nuclear deal, saying it could neither mend nor end it. </b>

The foreign minister was replying to questions during a short discussion on the foreign policy statement he had made in Parliament on March 3.

<b>“We are at a stage where we can neither mend it nor end it. We are in the dialogue stage,”</b> Mukherjee told the Rajya Sabha.

The minister had on March 3 said the IAEA safeguards agreement and guidelines from the Nuclear Suppliers Group would enable India to carry out nuclear commerce with other countries.

While the Opposition today wanted the Centre to “end the suspense” on whether it was going ahead with the deal, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury and the CPI’s D. Raja reiterated the Left’s opposition.

Mukherjee said there had been some progress in talks on the India-specific safeguards agreement with atomic watchdog IAEA, but it was yet to be inked.

“When the entire process is over, we will come and seek Parliament’s opinion. Let that stage come,” he said, explaining why the government had rejected the BJP’s demand for a joint parliamentary committee on the nuclear deal.

Mukherjee said that “never before” had the country subjected an international agreement to Parliament scrutiny.

The minister pointed out that since July 2005, the deal had been discussed five times in Parliament.

Responding to the BJP charge that the main Opposition had been kept in the dark and only the Left had been privy to information about the deal, Mukherjee said it was “an internal arrangement” since the Left was supporting the government from outside.

The BJP’s allegation prompted Yechury to quip: “Let them (BJP) join the UPA.”

But the smile on the CPM leader’s lips vanished when he began attacking the government on the direction its foreign policy was allegedly taking. “Although we support the government now, we will be the first to oppose the government if it succumbs to (US) pressure,” Yechury said.

<b>He also flayed Delhi’s policy on Israel.</b> “If the government falters, we will pull it up. We cannot afford to be drawn into the strategic tie-ups. We will not permit the government to succumb to US pressure,” Yechury said.

Mukherjee stressed that there had been no change in India’s stand on the Palestine issue.

On allegations that the government was not making strong enough statements against Israel, Mukherjee said “the strongest” of sentiments could be expressed in a very “sober way”.