Is it end-deal?

What the Congress kept delaying finally happened today: its moment of reckoning has come, after the Left made it clear it would not let the Government go to Vienna to confirm the safeguards agreement, the key first piece in the operationalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

The party’s top brass went into a huddle at 10, Janpath faced with perhaps the toughest choice since they took charge four years ago: give in to the Left and freeze the Indo-US nuclear deal to keep the government alive and a line with the Left open in an election year or seize the historic opportunity and stamp the party’s commitment to the “national interest.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who spoke to Congress President Sonia Gandhi on the phone, was learnt to have argued in favour of going ahead with the deal after the Left issued a statement that it was of the “firm opinion” that “the government should not proceed to seek approval of the text of the India-specific safeguards agreement from the Board of Directors of the IAEA.”

This Left statement came a few hours after the government deferred today’s UPA-Left meeting to June 25 as External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s discussions with CPM general secretary Prakash Karat on Monday and Tuesday failed to make any headway. The Left also said it did not get the full text of the agreement.

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US Defence Secretary turn to say: deal clock ticking

U S Secretary of Defence Robert Gates today said he has conveyed it to the Indian leadership that while Washington understands the domestic political compulsions of the UPA government on the nuclear deal, it is important to realise that the "clock is ticking" in the US as this is an election year and the Senate needs time to ratify the agreement.

"I said we are respectful of the domestic political situation here. But the clock is ticking in terms of how much time is available to get all the different aspects of the agreement implemented," he said at a select media interaction after concluding his two-day visit to India during which he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of Opposition L K Advani, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister A K Antony.

Underlining that the civilian nuclear agreement "serves the interest of both countries", Gates said: "The real key here is providing time for our Senate to ratify the final arrangement. This being an election year, there is an open question of how long the Senate will be in session beyond the summer and September."

But he emphasised that the Indo-US relationship was "a wide ranging one" and among the few issues in US foreign relations policy with bipartisan support, which is unlikely to change after the US presidential polls. In this context, he also felt that the relationship will continue


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