Government tries to woo allies for nuke deal

The government on Thursday stepped up efforts to bring around allies and the Left telling them that there were certain compulsions for it to go to the International  Atomic Energy Agency for finalising the India-specific safeguards agreement and that time was running out.
     
But the government has also made it clear to the Left parties that it cannot make a public declaration, as demanded by the outside supporters, that they would not take the deal to the Nuclear Suppliers Group after pushing it through the IAEA.
     
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who met allies including Sharad Pawar (Nationalist Congress Party), Lalu Yadav (Rashtriya Janata Dal) and Ram Vilas Paswan (Lok Janashakti Party), and Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury, told them that the term of the current IAEA chief El Baradei is due to expire in August and India was not sure what attitude the new incumbent would adopt.
     
Therefore, the government said, that things would have to be moved in the IAEA in July and was seeking the consent of the Left and other allies, sources said. Prasad and Paswan said after the meeting that talks were on to find a solution. The Railway Minister said the government would last its full term.
     
But the Left parties have clearly told the government if it went ahead with the deal in the IAEA then it would not not
be any more in its hands and the United States would pursue the issue with the NSG.
     
Mukherjee is believed to have told leaders that till India does not go to NSG, matters cannot move to the
45-member nuclear suppliers forum.
     
Left sources said that the allies, who are supporting the deal, are however not keen on early polls and the
government was aware of this circumscribing factor. Left sources said the government was also aware of the problems it would face in Parliament if the Left were to withdraw their support.
      
Left parties, which have 59 members in the Lok Sabha, however, concede that the deal could go through and the
government survive if the 39-member Samajwadi Party supports it.
      
The Left parties still have not not give up hopes and sources say that they were trying to work with the government
on how to reconcile the differences.
      
Communist Party of India leader A B Bardhan said their opposition to the deal was not not a move aimed at bringing down the government but only to prevent it from implementing it.
      
Though Left leaders including Yechury and CPI's D Raja were more vociferous, Bardhan  parried questions on what the Left parties would do in Parliament if the government took the next step at the IAEA.
       
Bardhan, however, said that a minority government would be circumspect in taking forward a major international treaty.