PM nukes Left, signals to IAEA
Jyoti Malhotra -
Thursday, July 10, 2008 8:18 PM
The sound and fury over the Indo-US nuclear deal over the last few weeks has resulted in such a complete breakdown of trust between the Left parties and the Congress-led government that yesterday’s secular allies have been reduced to, today, spitting fire and brimstone at each other at every opportunity.
All day on Thursday, Left leaders gnashed their teeth over the fact that India had “secretly”, and therefore “deceitfully” told the IAEA Secretariat in Vienna to circulate the India-specific safeguards agreement (which forms the backbone of the Indo-US nuclear deal) to all 35 members of the IAEA Board, for consideration at its July 28 meeting.
Prakash Karat, general secretary of the CPI(M), had never seemed angrier in his life. Over the last few weeks, he has publicly accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of being at the beck and call of the Americans, of being beholden to president George Bush. But it could hardly get uglier than this.
Accusing the government of lying through its teeth, Karat pointed out that the government had kept the safeguards agreement away from the Left’s prying eyes, because it was, ostensibly, classified. How come, then, Karat asked, did the text suddenly become available on certain American websites even before it was put onto the Indian Foreign Office website?
By telling the IAEA Secretariat that the India text could be circulated to the 35 member states of the IAEA -- so that it could be discussed on July 28 -- Karat argued that the nuclear deal was already on auto-pilot. Trust vote or no vote, the deal was now ready for clearance by the IAEA, and thence onwards to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and the US Congress.
Karat’s worst nightmares were coming true before his eyes.
The Communist leader has a point. Even before the Left, on July 9, formally withdrew support from the government, India had decided, on July 8 itself, to give the IAEA secretariat in Vienna the green light to circulate the draft safeguards agreement. The decision to do so was taken on July 8 when the four Left parties announced that they would withdraw support from the government.
On July 8 itself, External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee spoke to the Prime Minister who was at the G-8 summit in Sapporo, Japan, and told him that it was all over, bar the shouting. It was decided that India would tell the IAEA Secretariat to circulate the India text to the 35-member IAEA Board.
On July 9, the IAEA Secretariat circulated the draft text to all its members, including the US. The story was on the website of several US news agencies almost immediately after. By this time, the PM and his entourage was winging its way home from Japan on Air India One.
When the Indian delegation reached home and found that the text had been leaked all over the world, it did its own double take. In the interest of “transparency,” according to a political source, the government decided that its own website, that of the Ministry of External Affairs, could not be treated so shoddily. The text was put on the MEA website early this morning, that is on July 10.
The PM, meanwhile, still means to have the last word. When the trust vote takes place in Parliament, possibly on July 21, the government will stake everything it has on the PM’s pet project, the Indo-US nuclear deal. If it loses, then all’s lost. The government will be reduced to caretaker status, and the deal will be well and truly, dead.
If the government wins, India will lead a triumphant victory march to Vienna, bugles and all.
Post Script : Amar Singh, Samajwadi Party leader, could also be declared kingmaker on that day.