Govt to seek confidence vote before approaching IAEA: Pranab

Zeenews Bureau New Delhi, July 08: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday announced that the UPA government will convene a special session of Parliament soon to seek vote of confidence, after its Left partners decided to withdraw support earlier in the day. He added that the government will move to the IAEA to finalise the safeguards agreement required for the Indo-US nuclear deal only after it wins the trust vote. Mukherjee told a press conference that the government will seek vote of confidence as soon as it receives a formal communication from President Pratibha Patil. He made the announcement after holding talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is in Japan to attend the G8 meet. Mukherjee further informed that normal Monsoon Session of Parliament will be convened from August 11. ‘Govt not hiding IAEA text’ Earlier, while replying to CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat's letter, which he had sent earlier this morning on behalf of the Left parties after announcing the withdrawal of support, Mukherjee said the government was not hiding the draft text of the safeguards agreement with the IAEA. The minister said that the summary of the safeguards agreement had already been given to the Communists. Full text of the safeguards agreement could not be shared with Left partners as it is a "privileged" confidential document between the Indian government and the IAEA, Mukherjee said in his response to Karat’s letter. Those wanting full text of the safeguards agreement would have had to join the government to have access to it, Mukherjee added. He went on to say further that full text of the safeguards agreement could be shared with “third parties” only after going through laid down procedures of the IAEA. He also clarified that outcome of talks with IAEA had been circulated among all members of the UPA-Left co-ordination committee as agreed in the November 16, 2007 meeting.

The whole thing is a charade. UPA wants nuclear deal. Leftists can't go with UPA on this. But they want government to survive otherwise the BJP will harvest the benefit of a government fall. Therefore leftists secretly permit the nuclear deal and arrange for the numbers with SP. The UPA will announce a Muslim as the next Prime Minister (probably Salman Kurshid) and the Left will be back to supporting them to fight communalism!