New Delhi, October 5: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Left today that given the calendar for the nuclear deal, the government would soon have to begin negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for the India-specific safeguards agreement.

But the Left stuck to its stand of no negotiation with the IAEA until the political committee submits its report and Parliament debates the deal. It later claimed it got the “impression” that the Government may not go ahead with the IAEA talks, making the next round of meeting slated for October 9 crucial.

“We cannot delay negotiations any more,” Mukherjee is learnt to have told Left leaders at the meeting of the UPA-Left committee on Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.

Apparently to placate Left’s concerns, a Department of Atomic Energy statement today said the DAE “is not holding any formal negotiations with the IAEA for drafting the safeguards agreement” and it had not received any initial draft from the agency.

Mukherjee is said to have told the Left that the UPA was prepared to show the text of the (safeguards agreement) to the Left before it is signed but it could not be delayed. Rejecting the proposal, Left leaders said it would be better to complete the deliberations by the committee and reach a conclusion before the government goes ahead with the talks.

Accordingly, the two sides decided to meet again on October 9 and, “if required”, again on October 14.

At the end of the over two-hour-long meeting, Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas said, “We have the impression that the Government will not go ahead with operationalising the deal till the committee files its report.”

“We reiterated our stand that the Government should not proceed with the operationalisation of the deal till the committee submits report and its findings are taken into account. We have been told that there were no formal talks with IAEA so far”, said D Raja national secretary of the CPI.

At the meeting, the Government argued that time was running out for the IAEA safeguard talks, and the process has to begin. More so because the safeguard negotiations take time, at least two to five weeks after which the text has to go before the IAEA board.

The Left sources said they opposed to this, saying the Government which waited so far can wait some more time for the committee to finalise its report and face a full-fledged debate in Parliament in the winter session.

The Government also tried to convince the Left about the advantage of nuclear power citing a report of the IAEA director general Mohamed El-Baradei, which gave a comparative advantage among the thermal, nuclear and hydro power.

The report also said more and more countries across the world are moving towards the nuclear power citing the example of France, Japan and Finland. Taking part in the discussion, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav said the country should be “spared” from a general election, and on a lighter vein wanted to know “whether he should go ahead with next year’s Railway budget.” To this, a Left leader quipped: “Nobody should stop doing his or her work.” The lighter vein continued when a Left leader pointed out that it was Lalu who publicly spoke of elections at Koderma.

On a serious note, there were discussions on the fuel-cycle and the technology transfer besides regular exchange of notes between the two sides. The next meeting of the committee will take place on October 9 and another meeting may be held on October 14.