Govt note to Left: will discuss Hyde implications

As per the Government’s note, a summary of which was released after the first meeting of this committee on Tuesday, the two sides will discuss the implications of the Hyde Act on the 123 agreement, according to sources present in the meeting. The 15-member panel will also discuss the implications of the deal on foreign policy and security cooperation, Mukherjee who is convener of the committee said after the 45-minute meeting at his residence.

Apart from Mukherjee, the meeting was attended by CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat, CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan, Forward Bloc leader Debabrata Biswas and RSP leader T J Chandrachoodan, among others. The UPA was represented by Mukherjee, A K Antony, P Chidambaram, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Kapil Sibal, Sharad Pawar, T R Baalu and Prithviraj Chavan among others.

Emerging from the meeting, Bardhan said the first sitting of the committee framed the issues to be discussed by it. The points of reference of the committee would be “the implications of the Hyde Act, the implications on our foreign policy, the implications on our nuclear programme and security cooperation.”

That both the UPA and the Left were only buying time through this committee was evident from the fact that there was “no substantive discussion” on issues, said sources. To start with Mukherjee spoke about the background and the context of the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal. He refrained from touching upon the contentious issues raised by the Left, said the sources.

The committee members then talked about their itineraries in the next few weeks in the context of their availability for the committee meeting. On a jocular note, Lalu Yadav asked the Left to give a “green signal” to the Government to go ahead with the nuclear deal.

Left leaders, who have been making strong public statements about the future of the UPA Government if it were to proceed with negotiations, kept skipping any mention of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting at Vienna for which DAE chief Anil Kakodkar is expected to leave later this week. The Left leaders refrained from mentioning the Vienna meeting on the sidelines of which Kakodkar is expected to hold talks about India-specific IAEA safeguards. The Left also kept quiet on the issue of operationalisation.

RSP nominee Chandrachoodan submitted a three-page detailed note at the meeting saying the 123 agreement holds “unmistakable threat to India’s sovereignty and compromises the nation’s future security…It would also endanger India’s independent foreign policy and its pursuit of a free and self reliant nuclear programme”.