SP in its pocket, Govt rejects Left's deadline

MANMOHAN'S FRIEND MULAYAM: The Prime Minister gets the SP leader's support for the Indo-US nuclear deal.

    

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Keywords: Mulayam, SP

New Delhi: The Congress has rejected the Left Front’s deadline to clarify whether it was going ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Sovereign governments or political parties cannot be subjected to deadlines, said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi after the Left parties asked the Government to explain by July 7 whether it intended to approach the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna for talks on India-specific safeguards agreement.

"We are working towards triple objectives—to do a nuclear deal in national interest, to carry along our allies with us for that purpose and to go to elections as per the constitutional schedule," he said.

"We believe that the nuclear deal is in national interest and are happy that other parties in the national interest are slowly converging to our viewpoint," he said.

Singhvi made the statement after the four Left parties released a letter they have sent to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee. "We wish to know definitely whether the Government is proceeding to seek the approval of the safeguards agreement by the Board of Governors of the IAEA. Please let us know the position by July 7," said the letter, which was released to the media by CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat.

Enthused by the Samajwadi Party’s support for the nuclear deal, the Government declared that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would meet US President George W Bush on July nine on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in Hokkaido in Japan.

The Prime Minister he is expected to discuss the progress in the nuclear deal at the summit.

Briefing reporters on the Prime Minister's three-day visit, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, however, did not give details of what they would discus but said the government would like to go ahead with the deal "as soon as we can" but it was not possible to give a timeframe for it.

"We will go ahead with it as soon as we can. Once we take a decision to approach the IAEA, we will let you know," he said adding the US was committed to getting India exemption from the Nuclear Suppliers Group for nuclear commerce under the July, 2005 civil nuclear cooperation agreement.

Menon said India was in touch with members of the NSG and it would proceed on the deal "as soon as we can". Many of the world leaders who would be attending the Hokkaido summit are also members of the NSG, he added.

Asked about US Congressman Gary Ackerman's comments that time was running out for the deal, he said he would like to get into the issue of timeframe.

"We would like to go ahead with it. We go ahead with it as soon as we can," said Menon.

On the other hand Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has called the political deal struck by Samajwadi Party and Congress plainly opportunistic.

(With inputs from PTI)