It has only hit the “pause button” and could be revived at any opportune time.

That is the solace the Congress is taking following UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s indication three days ago that the civil nuclear deal with the United States had been put on the back burner due to strident Left opposition and unwillingness among allies to face early General Elections.

“The deal has hit a pause button for the time being because of political reasons, but we are confident that it will be taken forward sooner than later,” highly-placed AICC sources said on Monday.

The Congress leadership, while underplaying the face that the US would soon have a new President, is confident New Delhi would be able to make Washington understand its compulsions in putting the deal on “pause” via the “excellent relationship between the two key persons” (Dr Singh and US President George Bush).

The sources claimed that the biggest indication that the deal had not been called off was the scheduled meeting of the UPA-Left mechanism on October 22. “If the deal had been put off, what was the need to call that meeting?” they asked.

A senior AICC leader aware of the way things are developing said that the UPA coordination committee might also meet soon to once again reiterate the commitment of all the alliance members towards taking the deal to its logical conclusion and also to signal to the Left that an international agreement could not be put off forever.
At the same time, the Congress is of the view that the Winter Session of Parliament should be called early, immediately after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returns from his trip to Russia on November 10, so that the deal could be discussed by the political parties on the floor of the House.

The thought process comes in the backdrop of earlier assertions by the government that there was no need to discuss the deal in Parliament as international agreements did not need the ratification of Parliament.

However, the new thinking in the ruling party is that the issue could be discussed without any requirement of ratification so that the concerns of the Left, the government’s viewpoints and the Opposition’s position came on record.

“But that will depend on whether the Opposition will allow the Parliament to function or just go on disrupting it,” the sources said. Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Dasmunsi is likely to start sounding out the various parties in this regard after the Durga Puja/Dusshera festivities.

Anyway, the chances of an early Winter Session are likely as the Congress is of the view that the session should end before the Gujarat elections as otherwise no party would have any interest left in House proceedings once the poll process starts.

The AICC officially, however, refused to make any comment on whether the deal had been put on hold.