“Total rejection of the deal was unexpected,” said a senior Congress leader. “Don’t tell me the Left failed to see in those documents what many nuclear scientists, who were with the Left until recently, have now praised.”

On the text of the 123 agreement, the main objections of the Left are:

• It denies “cooperation or access in any form whatsoever” to fuel enrichment, reprocessing and heavy-water production technologies.

• “Whether fuel supply will continue even after the cessation or termination of the agreement solely depends on the US Congress”.

However, the 123 agreement clearly gives India prior consent to reprocess. And the question of reprocessing will come up only when India sets up a “national facility” for reprocessing. Regarding technology for reprocessing and enrichment, the US doesn’t give such technology to any country as part of its policy.

But the Left parties, harping on their fundamental opposition to the Indo-US relationship called upon the Government not to “proceed further with the operationalising of the agreement” and demanded a review of the “strategic aspects of Indo-US relations.”

Asked if they vote against the Government if a discussion was held under Article 184, both Karat and CPI’s A B Bardhan said: “We will discuss what needs to be done in Parliament as well as outside later”.

The issue is likely to come up at UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s dinner for UPA constituents and Left allies on Wednesday evening. According to Congress estimates, even as the Left parties continue to criticize the draft 123 agreement, the UPA allies wouldn’t like to be seen with the BJP on this issue.

... contd.