New Delhi - Indian President Pratibha Patil was due to meet
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday to discuss the political
situation after communist parties withdrew parliamentary support to
his government in a dispute over a civilian nuclear deal with the
United States.
Officials at the Presidential Palace said the meeting slated for
Thursday evening would make it clear whether the Congress party-led
United Progressive Alliance (UPA) will seek a confidence vote in the
parliament.
Patil asked Singh's office for the meeting after four left-wing
parties having 59 members in the parliament snapped ties and demanded
a trust vote on Wednesday, saying the government was reduced to a
minority.
The communists, who describe the nuclear deal as a 'sell-out' of
India's strategic sovereignty, took the decision soon after Singh met
US President George W Bush on the margins of the G8 summit in Japan
and discussed progress on the deal.
The India-US nuclear agreement, reached in July 2007 after two
years of negotiations, would allow the US to trade fissile materials
and technology with India, ending a three-decade ban.
According to officials, Patil may advise Singh for the trust vote
during the meeting. She could also follow a precedent set by former
president KR Narayanan of not calling for a confidence vote if she
was convinced that the UPA government had the requisite numbers.
Congress party politicians said the UPA, with new-found support
from its former rival Samajwadi (Socialist) Party, has more than 272
members in the 543-member Indian parliament, that is required to pass
the floor test and prove a majority.
But with two of the 39 SP members of parliament saying they would
defy party whip, the UPA government would have 263 votes - nine short
of 272, and the UPA managers are desperately courting members of
smaller regional parties to gain the numbers.
The Singh-Patil meeting on Thursday comes against the backdrop of
India's circulating a draft nuclear safeguards agreement among the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) members in Vienna.
The safeguards agreement is required to be approved by the IAEA
board of governors before Delhi secures an exemption from the Nuclear
Suppliers' Group and sends it to the US Congress for ratification.
Under the safeguards agreement made public by the Indian
government, India will have access to the international nuclear fuel
market, including reliable, uninterrupted and continuous access to
fuel supplies from companies in several nations.
The agreement also contains support for an Indian effort to
develop a strategic reserve of nuclear fuel to guard against any
disruption of supply over the lifetime of Indian reactors. This was a
contentious issue that had held up talks for weeks.
India will also identify and separate its civilian and military
nuclear facilities and programmes in a phased manner to file with the
agency a declaration regarding its civilian nuclear facilities.
Meanwhile, the communist parties and the main opposition Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) attacked the government for going to the IAEA
without facing the trust vote first.
'The government's decision to go ahead with nuclear deal is
nothing but shocking betrayal of commitment to the country and the
people,' CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said.
But Congress accused the leftist parties of misleading the
country.
'They know very well that parliamentary support would be initiated
well before the board of governors of the IAEA meet to approve the
agreement. Only circulation among members is being done now,'
Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told the PTI news agency.
'They are a making a mountain when not even a molehill exists,' he
added.
USA
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