The rift comes at a time when the Left parties were about to sit together to prepare a questionnaire seeking clarifications from the Government on the deal, following a decision taken after the recently held UPA-Left coordination committee meeting.

Accusing them of creating “ideological confusion” among the Left ranks, the RSP and FB feel statements made by both CPM general secretary Prakash Karat and CPI general secretary A B Bardhan that they were not against the IAEA agreement were “totally unwarranted”.

Bardhan, while addressing the party congress in Hyderabad, had said his party had no problems with the safeguards agreement. “Our problem is with the Indo-US nuclear agreement,” he had said. Karat too, on another occasion, had said his party was not against the safeguards agreement with the IAEA. “But our problem is with 123 Agreement,” he had said. Significantly, Bardhan’s statement had come a day after Karat’s.

The RSP and FB, known for their “pure Left positions”, have decided to get the differences explained in the next meeting of the Left parties scheduled to be held in the first week of April.

“The remarks made by Bardhan and Karat in this context were totally unwarranted. We do not agree with it. They did not even discuss this before changing their stance and they will have to explain,” RSP general secretary T J Chandrachoodan told The Indian Express.

According to him, few know what is exactly in the IAEA agreement. “The Government has kept us all in the dark. This being the case, how can CPM and CPI say that they have no problems with the agreement which they have not seen,” said Chandrachoodan.

A member of the 15-member UPA-Left nuclear committee, Chandrachoodan is of the view that once India signs the deal, “the ball will be in the US court and then it is up to the IAEA to take it to the NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group) and to the US Congress. This is exactly what the Left parties had been opposing all along.”

The FB too is not happy with the “sudden’change” in the position of the big brothers. “Till now, the Left had been opposing the deal from all fronts on the ground that it would derail India’s independent foreign policy and indigenous nuclear programmes. The CPM and the CPI had even threatened to withdraw their support to the Governemnt if it went ahead with the deal. This sudden change is inexplicable,” said G Devarajan of the FB.

According to him, signing the IAEA agreement amounts to operationalising the deal and this was something the Left had been opposing all along.