Left-UPA trade charges over nuclear deal, Karat accuses PM of deepening crisis; UPA-Left committee to meet to finalise findings; Government decides to go to IAEA to finalise safeguards agreement
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    • A lot of political heat was generated over the nuclear deal in the past couple of weeks. After spending a considerable amount of political capital trying to bring the Left parties to see reason over the nuclear deal, it seemed that the government had made up its mind to go to the IAEA1.

    Left parties on their part charged that the current political crisis was a result of the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmhoan Singh’s renewed bid to go to the IAEA2. Earlier in the week, the UPA-Left committee on the nuclear deal met on June 25 and decided to hold another meeting in due course to finalise its findings. The meeting was earlier scheduled to be held on June 18 but was postponed at the last moment3. Reports noted that the Left parties pointed out that after going to the IAEA, it would be the US which would take further steps in getting the waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). This would in essence put the deal on ‘auto pilot’ and leave little scope for India’s viewpoints to be considered in further developments4.

    Most of the UPA allies on their part have indicated to the government that they opposed early elections, in view of the current inflationary economic situation. This was conveyed by the Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad and Lok Jan Shakti leader Ram Vilas Paswan in their meetings with Congress president Sonia Gandhi5.

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