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Withdrawal Reacting to the statement of the Indian Prime minister Manmohan Singh, Left parties on Tuesday announced the withdrawal of support to the United Progressive Alliance Government over the issue of the Indo-US nuclear deal. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Monday had declared that his Government would “very soon” approach the IAEA board of governors to move forward on the N-deal. Left parties announced that they would meet the President on Wednesday, July 9 to withdraw support to the United Progressive Alliance Government.

Meeting It must be recalled that Left was supporting the Manmohan led UPA Government from outside. The Left includes CPI (M), CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP. Leaders of the left parties separately met the president Pratibha Patil on Wednesday and handed her over their letters of withdrawal of support to the UPA government. They in a joint letter asked her to direct the Prime Minister to prove his majority in the Lok Sabha. Another meeting of the UPA-Left Committee on the issue of N-deal was scheduled to be held on July 10.But is was rendered “meaningless” since the Prime Minister had announced that the government would approach the IAEA Board of Governors very soon. 

Stand Earlier, all the Left parties had decided that if the Government approaches the IAEA Board of Governors they will withdraw their support to the UPA government. Left parties after an hour long meeting sent a, letter, copies of which was circulated to the media also, to the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, expressed that their was nothing left in the UPA-Left committee’s proposed meeting on July 10 in view of PM’s remarks of going ahead with the n-deal. They held Prime Minister solely responsible for whole of the political problems and the uncertainty.  

  SP Support On the other hand Mulayam Singh Yadav led Samajwadi Party which has 39 MPs has announced that they will vote in favour of the UPA government to save both the N-deal and the government. SP had earlier consulted with scientists, intellectuals and experts including the former President APJ Abdul Kalam. It is being said that Congress has also got the support of Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh and HD Deve Gowda. Left and BJP are opposing the N-deal. They have raised questions and have doubts regarding some of the terms of the IAEA agreement. Left parties were also demanding the full text of the draft IAEA agreement.

Second Step It was another unexpected step that the UPA government took without consulting its alliance partners. Before going to Japan the prime Minister had announced that the government has decided to go ahead with the n-deal. It irritated the Left parties who retaliated in the form of the withdrawing their support to the UPA government. And now the government has given their nod to go ahead with the n-deal by forwarding the draft text to the IAEA board of Governors. This is the second step that government has taken in haste and that revealed PM’s obsession with the n-deal and Left’s determination to stop it at any cost. This is absolutely contrary to Pranab Mukherjee’s earlier statement that government will approach the IAEA Board of Governors after proving its majority in the Parliament.

IAEA Draft agreement has been circulated to all the 35 members of the Board. Chairman of board is in touch with the other members and very soon the date will be finalize for a meeting when all the members will sit and the agreement will be considered. A meeting of the Board is scheduled to be held on 28^th of July. It is the possibility that the draft text can be discussed in that meeting.

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Encouragement Latest developments are very encouraging in relevance to the India’s pursuit of n-energy. Prime Minister has attended the G-8 summit in Japan where all its member nations and some others met on the sidelines of the summit. He has succeeded in winning the support of about 15 nations including the G-8 nations. It is the encouraging sign as most of the nations are the members of the IAEA and NSG. Except it US has vowed to support the Indian government in it effort to clinch the n-deal.

Energy Options India is one of the fastest growing economies and its energy needs are increasing many folds day by day. It is the necessity of the time to ensure the energy supplies in the future. India meets its most of the energy needs by importing petroleum products from Middle East. Political developments in the Middle East and rising petroleum prices are a threat to the energy supplies. India’s dependency on Middle East for energy needs can force India to compromise with its sovereignty. Though India was having discussions with Iran and Pakistan regarding the Gas Pipe line but Pakistan’s internal problems and Iran’s confrontation with US over the n-issue discourages the government in New Delhi. Keeping in view the energy needs in future n-deal is the only option left and Indian government has done the right thing by choosing it.