While India is yet to formally approach the IAEA to schedule talks, DAE head Anil Kakodkar will be in Vienna for the agency’s general conference on September 17. The IAEA board is slated to meet a week earlier, but the Indian agreement is not part of the agenda yet.

Sources said India is expected to make the first forays on the safeguards agreement on the margins of this meeting and possibly agree on dates for formal negotiations soon after. It is quite possible that a technical team will be sent ahead of the conference to hold informal talks.

With the government showing urgency, the Left plans to derail this timetable but will stop short of withdrawing support to the government for now.

For the Left, the immediate strategy is to buy time by taking on the government through protests and rallies. If they manage to upset the timetable for the next six months, Left sources say it will block the nuclear deal for the time being since President Bush’s term will come to an end next November. And as has been the case, major legislative business tends to get postponed seven to eight months before Presidential elections.