The only decision which was taken at the meeting, which lasted for almost two hours, is to meet again on October 5 with a fresh set of notes specifying the respective arguments of both sides.

However, the Left parties appeared to have made some head way in convincing the UPA government on the need to go slow on operationalising the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Kakodkar mum
The Atomic Energy Commission chairman, Dr Anil Kakodkar, who addressed the 51st General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at Vienna on Wednesday, refrained from making any direct reference to the Indo-US nuclear deal. 

He only made a few oblique references to the agreement.

The Left parties have been insisting that no negotiations should be held with the IAEA authorities to formulate a India-specific safeguards agreement, which is the next step in operationalising the nuclear deal, till their reservations are addressed.

Dr Kakodkar will not be attending the Nuclear Supplier Group’s meeting on Thursday on the sidelines of the IAEA meeting as well. This is notwithstanding reports that the US is likely to brief the 45-nation NSG about the deal and seek to impress upon it the need to change its guidelines to allow nuclear trade with India.

Govt reply rejected
Meanwhile, the indication that the UPA-Left meeting would not be able to yield any result came quite early as the four Left Parties held a meeting in the morning to reject the government’s response to their objections on the deal.

“We are not convinced with even a single contention of the government. It is a lawyers’ contention,” CPI leader A B Bardhan said after an over 90-minute meeting among Left leaders on the 12-page UPA document, which was sent as a reply to their note. 

He further added, “We have rebuffed, refuted whatever the government has said today, we have prepared a sort of reply to their reply and we will discuss it on that basis.”

The Left note, running into almost 12 pages, focused on the impact of the Hyde Act and 123 Agreement, assurance of fuel supply, termination clauses and technology transfer.

Emerging from the meeting of the committee, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee read out a three-paragraph statement saying, “We had discussion on a number of issues raised in the notes circulated by both the sides.

Next meet on Oct 5
“The discussions were constructive and will continue at the next meeting of the committee scheduled to be held at 4:00 pm on October 5, 2007.”

However, political observers feel that with both sides sticking to their respective positions, the prospect of reconciliation between the UPA government and their outside supporters are remote.

The CPM central committee and politburo, which are scheduled to meet in Kolkata towards the end of this month, would deliberate on the future course of action ahead of the third meeting of the joint committee on October 5. They also think that the CPM central leadership might have to adopt a more flexible approach on the issue.

 given the pro-industrialisation stand of West Bengal Chief Minister and politburo member Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Accordingly, some of the inputs of the Left response note containing their arguments on foreign policy and nuclear self-reliance are likely to be culled out from the deliberations of this meeting. A note would be submitted to the UPA leadership on October 3.

The joint committee meeting was attended by CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat, his CPI counterpart A B Bardhan, Forward Bloc leader Debabrata Biswas and Union Ministers Sharad Pawar, Lalu Prasad, Kapil Sibal and Saifuddin Soz.

Earlier, responding to US Ambassador David Mulford’s statement that time was running out for India on the deal, Mr Karat said “they (US) are pressurising us. You know it very well. They have set a time-table and they want India to work under the time-table”.