The future of a key nuclear energy pact between New Delhi and Washington appeared bleak Tuesday with the Indian government apparently failing to win over sceptical left-wing allies.
A communist leader warned that the dominant Congress party would fail in its latest effort to push through the deal, aimed at giving India access to the worldwide nuclear energy trade without signing global non-proliferation pacts. The comment came after a report that Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee met India's most influential Marxist leader, Prakash Karat, late Monday to lay the groundwork for make-or-break discussions on Wednesday.
In the meeting, Mukherjee sought approval to sign a pact with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a key step in implementing the deal concluded with Washington in 2006, the Press Trust of India news agency said. Senior Communist leader D. Raja told AFP that left-wing parties were still as opposed as ever. "We have told the government that the IAEA pact was negotiated on the basis of the pact with Washington," said Raja, national secretary of the Communist Party of India.
"Signing the pact with IAEA means operationalising the (India-US) deal so we are against this." Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters that the meeting Wednesday would consider any proposal by the government though his party was opposed to "signing the IAEA accord."
"Our objection is not with IAEA. Our objection is with the India-US deal which according to us is very deeply anchored" in American domestic law that will impact India's strategic nuclear programme. The opposition to the deal comes despite efforts by senior Congress leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi, to highlight the importance of nuclear energy to power India's economic growth at a time of sky-rocketing crude oil prices. Singh had also said last week that the deal would end India's three-decade-long exclusion from global nuclear commerce while Mukherjee described the pact as the "most potent means" for achieving energy security. But Raja refused to budge, saying: "We are not opposed to nuclear energy but we are opposed to this deal with the US."
Both the Communists and opposition Hindu nationalists say the pact brings the traditionally non-aligned country too close to Washington and could compromise India's military programme. New Delhi and Washington are keen to get the deal through before US President George W. Bush, a staunch supporter of the pact, leaves office at the end of the year and India holds national polls by May 2009 at the latest.
Besides approval from the US Congress, India also requires the green light from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which regulates global civilian nuclear trade, before it can begin buying nuclear reactors and fuel. Security analyst C.U. Bhaskar told AFP that the deal would be "dead" if Wednesday's talks did not yield a breakthrough. "The new US Congress (that takes office after November polls in the United States) will not accept the deal in the current form. They would like to renegotiate certain aspects," he said.
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