JYOTI MALHOTRA
New Delhi, September 4, 2007 : The arrest, over the weekend, by Bangladesh’s army-backed government, of HUJI activist Abu Hamza, a close aide of the chief alleged suspect of the Hyderabad blasts Shahid Bilal, signals Dhaka’s keenness to maintain good relations with Delhi.
Highly placed sources from Bangladesh told `The Telegraph’ that the Bangladeshi intelligence agencies, upon watching the blasts in Hyderabad, decided to sweep their own underground for any clues to the blast.
This was done even without any formal communication from Delhi, requesting either information or action, the Bangladeshi sources said.
That is how the Bangladeshi operatives picked up Abu Hamza in Dhaka, after his connections with Shahid Bilal were confirmed.
It isn’t clear yet what the Bangladeshis are intending to do with Abu Hamza, whether they’re going to hand him to India or not.
But clearly, the Army-backed government of Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed, acutely sensitive about Indian allegations that Bangladesh remains a hotbed of cross-border terrorists, wants to send another signal to Delhi that he is keen on opening a new chapter in bilateral relations.
The arrest of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, coinciding with the arrest of Abu Hamza, is intended to send a second message : While Khaleda’s BNP government may have deliberately taken an anti-Indian position, the Army-backed government of Fakhruddin Ahmed today wants to break with the past.
In fact, Dhaka is believed to have kept Delhi completely updated about its plans, including warning Delhi about its intentions to arrest both Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, even before the events took place.
The Army-backed government has insisted that it is only ``cleansing society’’, which is why both Khaleda Zia’s sons are also now in jail, accused of graft and money-laundering.
Hours after Khaleda moved to Dhaka jail, where she has former Bangladesh PM and Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina for company, Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission sued Hasina for taking Taka 3 crore as bribe.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh army chief Moeen U. Ahmed’s visit to India continues to be postponed, ostensibly because of the flood situation in that country, but also because he wants to remain closely in touch with developments at home.
Meanwhile, Delhi is keeping a close eye on the split in Khaleda’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which took place hours before she was packed off to jail over the weekend.
Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, the sacked deputy leader of the BNP, is a former Communist and played an active role as a ``muktijodda’’ or ``freedom-fighter’’ in Bangladesh’s liberation war in 1981.
Bhuiyan has termed his sacking ``unconstitutional,’’ but Bangladeshi observers are already distinguishing between the ``old’’ and the ``new’’ BNP.
Ashraf Hossain, a BNP leader sacked along with Bhuiyan, told AFP that ``Our main crime was that we said we would resist dynastic politics. We wanted to get rid of the corrupt leaders within the party.’’
Both Khaleda and Hasina face at least seven years in jail if the evidence of graft is proved.
ENDS
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Ronen referred to Privileges committee
JYOTI MALHOTRA
New Delhi, September 1, 2007 : India’s ambassador to the US, Ronen Sen, may find himself in a thicker soup than he anticipated over his ``headless chicken’’ remarks, with Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee referring the matter to the Privileges Committee of Parliament on Friday.
This is the first time ever that an ambassador of India, whether career diplomat or political appointee, has become a subject of interest for the Privileges committee, which is tasked with maintaining decorum and propriety of all members of parliament.
In the middle of the stormy debate sparked off by the civilian nuclear deal, ambassador Sen had been quoted as saying in an interview : ``Why do you have all this running around like headless chickens, looking for a comment here or comment there, and these little storms in a tea-cup.’’
As Parliament erupted in dismay, Sen offered an ``unqualified apology’’ for his ``tactless remarks,’’ saying he had never referred to MPs, but to his media friends.
But parliamentarians across the ideological divide, BJP MP Vijay Kumar Malhotra and CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta were unmoved, moving privilege notices against Sen last week.
Apart from the ``headless chickens’’ comment, Sen had also commented on the nuclear deal even before it had been debated in the House, further exacerbating the situation, several MPs said.
Whether or not Sen will now be summoned to the parliamentary bar will be up to the 15-member Privileges committee to decide. Alternatively, the committee could close the matter if it felt the ambassador was truly sorry.
But the fact that the Speaker has decided to pursue the matter, even after receiving a reply from the Ministry of External Affairs last week, attests to the seriousness of the matter.
The Lok Sabha secretariat had written to the MEA seeking clarification of Sen’s remarks in an interview with a website, and the MEA had sent the case file quickly back, along with an unqualified apology by ambassador Sen.
ENDS
New Delhi, September 1, 2007 : India’s ambassador to the US, Ronen Sen, may find himself in a thicker soup than he anticipated over his ``headless chicken’’ remarks, with Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee referring the matter to the Privileges Committee of Parliament on Friday.
This is the first time ever that an ambassador of India, whether career diplomat or political appointee, has become a subject of interest for the Privileges committee, which is tasked with maintaining decorum and propriety of all members of parliament.
In the middle of the stormy debate sparked off by the civilian nuclear deal, ambassador Sen had been quoted as saying in an interview : ``Why do you have all this running around like headless chickens, looking for a comment here or comment there, and these little storms in a tea-cup.’’
As Parliament erupted in dismay, Sen offered an ``unqualified apology’’ for his ``tactless remarks,’’ saying he had never referred to MPs, but to his media friends.
But parliamentarians across the ideological divide, BJP MP Vijay Kumar Malhotra and CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta were unmoved, moving privilege notices against Sen last week.
Apart from the ``headless chickens’’ comment, Sen had also commented on the nuclear deal even before it had been debated in the House, further exacerbating the situation, several MPs said.
Whether or not Sen will now be summoned to the parliamentary bar will be up to the 15-member Privileges committee to decide. Alternatively, the committee could close the matter if it felt the ambassador was truly sorry.
But the fact that the Speaker has decided to pursue the matter, even after receiving a reply from the Ministry of External Affairs last week, attests to the seriousness of the matter.
The Lok Sabha secretariat had written to the MEA seeking clarification of Sen’s remarks in an interview with a website, and the MEA had sent the case file quickly back, along with an unqualified apology by ambassador Sen.
ENDS
PM dedicates Tarapur reactors, won't back down on nuke deal
JYOTI MALHOTRA
New Delhi, August 31, 2007 : Buoyed by the promise of the Congress party veering around to keeping the faith over the Indo-US nuclear deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today showed no signs of backing down as he dedicated two Tarapur nuclear reactors to the nation.
In fact, the PM in his speech, pretty much set out a schedule for India to follow that would put the 123 agreement on course to taking the next steps at the IAEA, and onwards to a waiver at the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
``We need to pave the way for India to benefit from nuclear commerce without restrictions,’’ the PM said, adding, ``Once these and other steps are taken, India can commence civil nuclear cooperation with all the 45 members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.’’
It almost seemed as if the sound and fury of the last three weeks, his government teetering in the balance as it debated the onslaught of the Left parties over the nuclear deal, was yesterday’s nightmare.
A renewed challenge to the Left parties was also back.
``Our international cooperation… cannot become effective until the Nuclear Suppliers Group adapts its guidelines to enable nuclear commerce with India. The NSG itself has made it clear that they will not do so till the India-specific Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA is finalized,’’ the PM said.
Back in Delhi, senior members of the Congress party admitted that if the committee, set up yesterday to placate the Left parties, did not succeed in its mandate by the end of September, the party was ``ready to face all consequences.’’
One senior party leader went as far as to say that ``setting up the committee did not mean that the Congress was ready to put the nuclear deal on hold.’’
However, Congress leaders also insisted that they had not yet taken the political call necessary for soldiering on alone.
In Tarapur, meanwhile, with National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Atomic Energy chief Anil Kakodkar listening, an unruffled PM spoke about the critical need to harness nuclear energy towards the sustenance of 9 per cent growth.
That is why, he pointed out, even as India pursued the three-stage fuel cycle which would give the country nearly unlimited power, it was imperative to augment national capabilities from ``elsewhere.’’
``We must take decisive steps to remove the uncertainties that result from shortfall in fuel supplies to avoid disruptions in our nuclear power production programme,’’ the PM said.
At the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre training school, he could not resist a jab at the Left’s opposition as he paid full tribute to all those scientists and engineers who had laid the ``building blocks of self-reliance’’ in nuclear science and technology.
Then he chose the one Mahatma Gandhi quote to deliver another verbal blow to all those seeking to deny greater contact with the western word :
``I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.”
Increasingly, official sources said, the government was coming around to the view that it could not risk postponing the operationalisation of the nuclear deal.
The only likely concession to the end October-early November IAEA deadline is that Delhi will negotiate the India-specific agreement with the IAEA, but not sign it at this point.
Armed with the frozen text of the India agreement, US diplomats said they would readily call for an emergency plenary session of the NSG by end-November. After the NSG gave its waiver, the US administration would need another month to wrap up documentation and submit it to the US Congress by mid-January 2008.
Since the US Congress usually demanded a 90-day ``cooling period’’ to study all proposed legislation, that would take the ``up-down’’ (yes-no) vote for the 123 agreement into April 2008.
``April would be the absolutely latest deadline, after which the US election would be in full swing,’’ one diplomat said.
ENDS
New Delhi, August 31, 2007 : Buoyed by the promise of the Congress party veering around to keeping the faith over the Indo-US nuclear deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today showed no signs of backing down as he dedicated two Tarapur nuclear reactors to the nation.
In fact, the PM in his speech, pretty much set out a schedule for India to follow that would put the 123 agreement on course to taking the next steps at the IAEA, and onwards to a waiver at the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
``We need to pave the way for India to benefit from nuclear commerce without restrictions,’’ the PM said, adding, ``Once these and other steps are taken, India can commence civil nuclear cooperation with all the 45 members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.’’
It almost seemed as if the sound and fury of the last three weeks, his government teetering in the balance as it debated the onslaught of the Left parties over the nuclear deal, was yesterday’s nightmare.
A renewed challenge to the Left parties was also back.
``Our international cooperation… cannot become effective until the Nuclear Suppliers Group adapts its guidelines to enable nuclear commerce with India. The NSG itself has made it clear that they will not do so till the India-specific Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA is finalized,’’ the PM said.
Back in Delhi, senior members of the Congress party admitted that if the committee, set up yesterday to placate the Left parties, did not succeed in its mandate by the end of September, the party was ``ready to face all consequences.’’
One senior party leader went as far as to say that ``setting up the committee did not mean that the Congress was ready to put the nuclear deal on hold.’’
However, Congress leaders also insisted that they had not yet taken the political call necessary for soldiering on alone.
In Tarapur, meanwhile, with National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Atomic Energy chief Anil Kakodkar listening, an unruffled PM spoke about the critical need to harness nuclear energy towards the sustenance of 9 per cent growth.
That is why, he pointed out, even as India pursued the three-stage fuel cycle which would give the country nearly unlimited power, it was imperative to augment national capabilities from ``elsewhere.’’
``We must take decisive steps to remove the uncertainties that result from shortfall in fuel supplies to avoid disruptions in our nuclear power production programme,’’ the PM said.
At the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre training school, he could not resist a jab at the Left’s opposition as he paid full tribute to all those scientists and engineers who had laid the ``building blocks of self-reliance’’ in nuclear science and technology.
Then he chose the one Mahatma Gandhi quote to deliver another verbal blow to all those seeking to deny greater contact with the western word :
``I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.”
Increasingly, official sources said, the government was coming around to the view that it could not risk postponing the operationalisation of the nuclear deal.
The only likely concession to the end October-early November IAEA deadline is that Delhi will negotiate the India-specific agreement with the IAEA, but not sign it at this point.
Armed with the frozen text of the India agreement, US diplomats said they would readily call for an emergency plenary session of the NSG by end-November. After the NSG gave its waiver, the US administration would need another month to wrap up documentation and submit it to the US Congress by mid-January 2008.
Since the US Congress usually demanded a 90-day ``cooling period’’ to study all proposed legislation, that would take the ``up-down’’ (yes-no) vote for the 123 agreement into April 2008.
``April would be the absolutely latest deadline, after which the US election would be in full swing,’’ one diplomat said.
ENDS
In face of critics, China wants non-pro order to remain strong
JYOTI MALHOTRA
New Delhi, August 31, 2007 : China is closely watching the ``very fierce’’ debate within India over the Indo-US nuclear deal, but has so far taken a very cautious view on the matter, largely because of its complicated nature, China’s ambassador to India Sun Yuxi said here today.
Speaking to a group of journalists at the Indian Women’s Press Corps in the capital, Ambassador Sun said : ``China does not want the Indo-US nuclear deal to weaken the non-proliferation regime, that is our concern.’’
That is why, he added, the Chinese government had so far not reacted formally on the deal, but preferred to take a ``very cautious position’’ on it.
Speaking for the first time since the 123 agreement became public, the Chinese envoy frankly admitted he was sometimes taken aback at the references to China being a factor in the domestic opposition to the nuclear deal, but said he ``understood’’ the Indian media’s reactions.
``No,’’ he said, ``I am not hurt by the Indian media’s comments (on China backing the Left parties), but I understand it. Perhaps the western media perception still stands in the way of our two countries understanding each other.’’
Clearly, as the Indian media factors in China in the domestic debate currently raging over the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Chinese government looks like it wants to reach out and dispel the impression that it is seeking to limit India’s growing power.
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, in a highly unusual gesture last week, gave the departing PTI correspondent from China an unscheduled interview, where he spoke at length about the potential and reality of Asia’s greatest civilizations, India and China.
Ambassador Sun spoke in much the same tone in today’s interaction with journalists, telling the story about the time Prime Minister Wen told him to report back as often as possible, ``about what we can learn from India.’’
The Chinese ambassador said he was sending reports about every conceivable aspect of Indian life back home to Beijing, precisely because there was so much to learn from this country.
In a lighter vein, Ambassador Sun pointed out that India and the US were always talking about the fact that they are the largest and oldest democracies in the world, but China was hardly lagging behind.
``Both of you, India and the US, say that you are democracies. We think we are also a democracy, only with a different style. Both in quantity and quality, China has a very good relationship with the US,’’ he said spiritedly.
``In fact, there are more American companies in China than Indian. We eat more Macdonalds hamburgers and wear more blue jeans,’’ the Chinese ambassador added.
ENDS
New Delhi, August 31, 2007 : China is closely watching the ``very fierce’’ debate within India over the Indo-US nuclear deal, but has so far taken a very cautious view on the matter, largely because of its complicated nature, China’s ambassador to India Sun Yuxi said here today.
Speaking to a group of journalists at the Indian Women’s Press Corps in the capital, Ambassador Sun said : ``China does not want the Indo-US nuclear deal to weaken the non-proliferation regime, that is our concern.’’
That is why, he added, the Chinese government had so far not reacted formally on the deal, but preferred to take a ``very cautious position’’ on it.
Speaking for the first time since the 123 agreement became public, the Chinese envoy frankly admitted he was sometimes taken aback at the references to China being a factor in the domestic opposition to the nuclear deal, but said he ``understood’’ the Indian media’s reactions.
``No,’’ he said, ``I am not hurt by the Indian media’s comments (on China backing the Left parties), but I understand it. Perhaps the western media perception still stands in the way of our two countries understanding each other.’’
Clearly, as the Indian media factors in China in the domestic debate currently raging over the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Chinese government looks like it wants to reach out and dispel the impression that it is seeking to limit India’s growing power.
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, in a highly unusual gesture last week, gave the departing PTI correspondent from China an unscheduled interview, where he spoke at length about the potential and reality of Asia’s greatest civilizations, India and China.
Ambassador Sun spoke in much the same tone in today’s interaction with journalists, telling the story about the time Prime Minister Wen told him to report back as often as possible, ``about what we can learn from India.’’
The Chinese ambassador said he was sending reports about every conceivable aspect of Indian life back home to Beijing, precisely because there was so much to learn from this country.
In a lighter vein, Ambassador Sun pointed out that India and the US were always talking about the fact that they are the largest and oldest democracies in the world, but China was hardly lagging behind.
``Both of you, India and the US, say that you are democracies. We think we are also a democracy, only with a different style. Both in quantity and quality, China has a very good relationship with the US,’’ he said spiritedly.
``In fact, there are more American companies in China than Indian. We eat more Macdonalds hamburgers and wear more blue jeans,’’ the Chinese ambassador added.
ENDS
The deal is dead, long live the nuclear deal
JYOTI MALHOTRA
New Delhi, August , 2007
Three weeks after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh challenged the Left parties, in an interview with `The Telegraph’, to withdraw support over the Indo-US nuclear deal, the government somewhat noisily climbed down today and put the deal into cold storage – at least for the time being.
Acutely aware that it was being forced by the Left parties to choose between keeping the government alive and going ahead with the deal, the government’s ace-trouble-shooter External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee chose to go with the former option.
But Mukherjee, sources said, still hoped that even if the UPA had lost the battle with the Left, it would go on to win the war.
The sources, somewhat crestfallen, nevertheless maintained that ``there was no way’’ the government would not go ahead with the 123 agreement, that abandoning the deal altogether would mean ``not only a terrible defeat for the UPA alliance, but a huge blow for India’s credibility abroad.’’
Clearly, though, today’s announcement of a political committee that will seek to allay the fears and concerns of the Left parties, doesn’t eliminate the danger to the life of the government, only defers it.
However, the creation of such a committee -- significantly, one with no deadline – also indicates that both the government and the Left have, albeit reluctantly, agreed to buy some more time so that third parties do not benefit from their squabble.
The BJP, for example, continued to demand for a joint parliamentary committee to go into the nuclear deal, pointing out that the setting up of a mechanism between the Congress and the Left on the nuclear deal was not a personal matter, but one that impacted the entire nation.
According to Left sources, Mukherjee had assured them that the government would not go ahead with operationalising the deal as long as the committee was alive.
However, government sources pointed out that the committee could not be permanently open-ended.
Aware that an IAEA Board of governors meeting is being held on November 22, the government may well use that date as an internal deadline to take a political call on the Left support to the UPA alliance.
With Gujarat elections out of the way by then, the Congress party could find it easier to weigh the nuclear deal in balance.
The Foreign minister today sought to assuage the Left parties by stating that ``operationalisation of the deal will take into account the committee’s findings.’’
The Foreign minister’s skilful choice of words may be worth bearing in mind. Nowhere in the statement is it said that the government is bound to accept the committee’s outcomes.
Meaning, Delhi will not ask for a meeting with the IAEA to discuss an India-specific safeguards agreement, something that constitutes the immediate next step in operationalising the 123 agreement.
But MEA sources insisted that even as the committee, mostly political in nature, looked into ``certain aspects’’ of the bilateral agreement, ``the implications of the Hyde Act’’ on the 123 agreement, as well as ``implications of the nuclear agreement on foreign policy and security cooperation,’’ key interlocutors of the government would continue to talk to key members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group for support for the 123 agreement.
For example, when Mukherjee speaks for India at the UN General Assembly in New York on September 28, he will undoubtedly also talk about the nuclear deal in his conversations with key NSG member states.
The sources pointed out that if the political committee did not succeed in assuaging the Left, the government would have no option but to go ahead with the deal. They accepted that elections were inevitable in such a scenario.
Under the circumstances, it now seems that the government’s internal deadline, for the committee as well as for taking the first of the three-step operationalisation, is around December 2007-January 2008.
The sources pointed out that India would be in grave danger of losing the momentum for support it had generated for the deal, and that further delay could mean that naysayers like China, Nordic countries like Sweden and Norway and even Ireland, would be strengthened by the internal opposition.
Although, in principle, the US Congress would remain very much alive, at least till elections will be held in November 2008, in practice, the US election machinery would get underway by January 2008.
The sources pointed out that after that it would be increasingly difficult to get distracted US Congressmen to focus on the Indo-US deal.
Moreover, the 123 agreement, according to the requirements of the Hyde Act, needs to be considered by the US Congress for at least 75 ``working days,’’ (or two-and-a-half months).
That would mean that the 123 agreement, having already cleared the IAEA hurdle as well as in possession of a waiver by the Nuclear Suppliers Group, would have to be submitted to the US Congress by the Bush administration in December-January.
ENDS
New Delhi, August , 2007
Three weeks after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh challenged the Left parties, in an interview with `The Telegraph’, to withdraw support over the Indo-US nuclear deal, the government somewhat noisily climbed down today and put the deal into cold storage – at least for the time being.
Acutely aware that it was being forced by the Left parties to choose between keeping the government alive and going ahead with the deal, the government’s ace-trouble-shooter External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee chose to go with the former option.
But Mukherjee, sources said, still hoped that even if the UPA had lost the battle with the Left, it would go on to win the war.
The sources, somewhat crestfallen, nevertheless maintained that ``there was no way’’ the government would not go ahead with the 123 agreement, that abandoning the deal altogether would mean ``not only a terrible defeat for the UPA alliance, but a huge blow for India’s credibility abroad.’’
Clearly, though, today’s announcement of a political committee that will seek to allay the fears and concerns of the Left parties, doesn’t eliminate the danger to the life of the government, only defers it.
However, the creation of such a committee -- significantly, one with no deadline – also indicates that both the government and the Left have, albeit reluctantly, agreed to buy some more time so that third parties do not benefit from their squabble.
The BJP, for example, continued to demand for a joint parliamentary committee to go into the nuclear deal, pointing out that the setting up of a mechanism between the Congress and the Left on the nuclear deal was not a personal matter, but one that impacted the entire nation.
According to Left sources, Mukherjee had assured them that the government would not go ahead with operationalising the deal as long as the committee was alive.
However, government sources pointed out that the committee could not be permanently open-ended.
Aware that an IAEA Board of governors meeting is being held on November 22, the government may well use that date as an internal deadline to take a political call on the Left support to the UPA alliance.
With Gujarat elections out of the way by then, the Congress party could find it easier to weigh the nuclear deal in balance.
The Foreign minister today sought to assuage the Left parties by stating that ``operationalisation of the deal will take into account the committee’s findings.’’
The Foreign minister’s skilful choice of words may be worth bearing in mind. Nowhere in the statement is it said that the government is bound to accept the committee’s outcomes.
Meaning, Delhi will not ask for a meeting with the IAEA to discuss an India-specific safeguards agreement, something that constitutes the immediate next step in operationalising the 123 agreement.
But MEA sources insisted that even as the committee, mostly political in nature, looked into ``certain aspects’’ of the bilateral agreement, ``the implications of the Hyde Act’’ on the 123 agreement, as well as ``implications of the nuclear agreement on foreign policy and security cooperation,’’ key interlocutors of the government would continue to talk to key members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group for support for the 123 agreement.
For example, when Mukherjee speaks for India at the UN General Assembly in New York on September 28, he will undoubtedly also talk about the nuclear deal in his conversations with key NSG member states.
The sources pointed out that if the political committee did not succeed in assuaging the Left, the government would have no option but to go ahead with the deal. They accepted that elections were inevitable in such a scenario.
Under the circumstances, it now seems that the government’s internal deadline, for the committee as well as for taking the first of the three-step operationalisation, is around December 2007-January 2008.
The sources pointed out that India would be in grave danger of losing the momentum for support it had generated for the deal, and that further delay could mean that naysayers like China, Nordic countries like Sweden and Norway and even Ireland, would be strengthened by the internal opposition.
Although, in principle, the US Congress would remain very much alive, at least till elections will be held in November 2008, in practice, the US election machinery would get underway by January 2008.
The sources pointed out that after that it would be increasingly difficult to get distracted US Congressmen to focus on the Indo-US deal.
Moreover, the 123 agreement, according to the requirements of the Hyde Act, needs to be considered by the US Congress for at least 75 ``working days,’’ (or two-and-a-half months).
That would mean that the 123 agreement, having already cleared the IAEA hurdle as well as in possession of a waiver by the Nuclear Suppliers Group, would have to be submitted to the US Congress by the Bush administration in December-January.
ENDS
Pranab Mukherjee is man for all seasons
JYOTI MALHOTRA
New Delhi, August 29, 2007 : Come hell or high water, the Congress high command knows it can always depend on one man to come to the aid of the party.
So when the high command shot down External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee’s name for President a couple of months ago because he was much too ``indispensable’’ to be allowed to semi-retire, no one realised just how true that would turn out to be.
In the wake of the political crisis over the Indo-US nuclear deal currently gripping the government, Mukherjee has become the one man everyone is turning to.
Seconded by both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to find a way out of the crisis with the Left parties, Mukherjee has patiently met every top leader from the CPM and the CPI, the RSP and the Forward Bloc, over the last three days.
And when a committee is set up to probe the whys and wherefores of the 123 agreement and the Hyde Act, Mukherjee will be its likely head.
By night, the Congress party’s political managers, Ahmed Patel and Defence minister AK Antony, land up at 13, Talkatora Road, the small white nondescript bungalow in which Mukherjee has lived for years and years. (He is entitled to a much fancier house of course, according to his stature, but he refuses to leave this place.)
Mukherjee’s aides say Patel and Anthony are around almost till the clock strikes midnight. Both know they cannot find a solution to the crisis without Mukherjee’s views on the matter.
``There are no holidays for us. We work on Onam and we work on Raksha Bandhan. We work during the day when Parliament is in session, in the Ministry of External Affairs and outside. Naturally we work on weekends,’’ Mukherjee’s aides said.
In fact, Mukherjee summoned the entire West Bengal Pradesh Congress committee for a meeting at his house a few days ago, a move being interpreted by some political observers as meaning that snap polls will be held sooner than later.
``Everything was discussed in the meeting, including the Indo-US nuclear deal and the Left’s failure to achieve industrialization in Bengal,’’ said sources.
Analysts love to point out that the Congress party’s near-total dependence on `Dada,’as Mukherjee is affectionately called, stems from the fact that he has been in the Congress party longer than any Congressman alive, first appointed minister of state for commerce in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet in the late 60s itself.
``Add to that the fact that he is completely discreet in the old-school mould and you get an unbeatable combination,’’ one politician said.
Mukherjee’s fame as trouble-shooter has in fact spread so far and wide that students from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, upset that Health minister Ambumani Ramadoss has refused to sign their medical degrees for the last couple of years, have taken an appointment to meet him at 10 pm at home tonight.
Only a couple of hours before, Mukherjee met Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes chairman Buta Singh, in connection with the protest by some AIIMS doctors over the selection of senior residents at India’s topmost research institution.
MEA sources pointed out that just because Pranab Mukherjee has become the UPA’s man-for-all-seasons doesn’t mean he slows down on ministry work.
Oman’s ambassador to India was calling on him this evening in connection with the possible visit by his King to India. As soon as the monsoon session of Parliament gets over on September 14, Mukherjee’s booked to travel to South Korea on September 16-17.
Ten days later he will be in New York to attend the UN General Assembly session, and take the rostrum to speak on September 28. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided not to go to the UNGA again this year.
As if all this were not enough, there is the matter of the 52 Groups of Ministers (GoMs) to consider. Last night, the GoM on gas pricing wrapped up its work and Petroleum minister Murli Deora is soon expected to announce its results.
Before that the GoM on the merger of Air-India with Indian Airlines had finalized its work, to create the newest corporate entity, Air India, to hit the skies.
Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel is already taking credit for that one.
ENDS
New Delhi, August 29, 2007 : Come hell or high water, the Congress high command knows it can always depend on one man to come to the aid of the party.
So when the high command shot down External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee’s name for President a couple of months ago because he was much too ``indispensable’’ to be allowed to semi-retire, no one realised just how true that would turn out to be.
In the wake of the political crisis over the Indo-US nuclear deal currently gripping the government, Mukherjee has become the one man everyone is turning to.
Seconded by both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to find a way out of the crisis with the Left parties, Mukherjee has patiently met every top leader from the CPM and the CPI, the RSP and the Forward Bloc, over the last three days.
And when a committee is set up to probe the whys and wherefores of the 123 agreement and the Hyde Act, Mukherjee will be its likely head.
By night, the Congress party’s political managers, Ahmed Patel and Defence minister AK Antony, land up at 13, Talkatora Road, the small white nondescript bungalow in which Mukherjee has lived for years and years. (He is entitled to a much fancier house of course, according to his stature, but he refuses to leave this place.)
Mukherjee’s aides say Patel and Anthony are around almost till the clock strikes midnight. Both know they cannot find a solution to the crisis without Mukherjee’s views on the matter.
``There are no holidays for us. We work on Onam and we work on Raksha Bandhan. We work during the day when Parliament is in session, in the Ministry of External Affairs and outside. Naturally we work on weekends,’’ Mukherjee’s aides said.
In fact, Mukherjee summoned the entire West Bengal Pradesh Congress committee for a meeting at his house a few days ago, a move being interpreted by some political observers as meaning that snap polls will be held sooner than later.
``Everything was discussed in the meeting, including the Indo-US nuclear deal and the Left’s failure to achieve industrialization in Bengal,’’ said sources.
Analysts love to point out that the Congress party’s near-total dependence on `Dada,’as Mukherjee is affectionately called, stems from the fact that he has been in the Congress party longer than any Congressman alive, first appointed minister of state for commerce in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet in the late 60s itself.
``Add to that the fact that he is completely discreet in the old-school mould and you get an unbeatable combination,’’ one politician said.
Mukherjee’s fame as trouble-shooter has in fact spread so far and wide that students from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, upset that Health minister Ambumani Ramadoss has refused to sign their medical degrees for the last couple of years, have taken an appointment to meet him at 10 pm at home tonight.
Only a couple of hours before, Mukherjee met Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes chairman Buta Singh, in connection with the protest by some AIIMS doctors over the selection of senior residents at India’s topmost research institution.
MEA sources pointed out that just because Pranab Mukherjee has become the UPA’s man-for-all-seasons doesn’t mean he slows down on ministry work.
Oman’s ambassador to India was calling on him this evening in connection with the possible visit by his King to India. As soon as the monsoon session of Parliament gets over on September 14, Mukherjee’s booked to travel to South Korea on September 16-17.
Ten days later he will be in New York to attend the UN General Assembly session, and take the rostrum to speak on September 28. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided not to go to the UNGA again this year.
As if all this were not enough, there is the matter of the 52 Groups of Ministers (GoMs) to consider. Last night, the GoM on gas pricing wrapped up its work and Petroleum minister Murli Deora is soon expected to announce its results.
Before that the GoM on the merger of Air-India with Indian Airlines had finalized its work, to create the newest corporate entity, Air India, to hit the skies.
Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel is already taking credit for that one.
ENDS
PM won't go to Crawford, Sarkozy is chief guest at Republic Day
JYOTI MALHOTRA
New Delhi, August 24, 2007 : In the hullabaloo over the Indo-US nuclear deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has quietly decided to call off his visit to US President George Bush’s Crawford ranch in Texas.
But in a clear sign that he is not backing down in the face of the Left challenge demanding Delhi not get into a strategic alliance with America, the PM has decided to widen the ambit of the current debate, by inviting other nuclear powers like France to intensify its engagement with India.
It is now confirmed that French president Nicholas Sarkozy will be the chief guest at India’s 58th Republic Day celebrations on January 26, 2008.
Sarkozy’s France is the world’s largest consumer of nuclear energy and French companies have been deliriously eyeing India’s nuclear energy market.
In fact, the 123 nuclear agreement between India and the US names France as one of three countries (the others are Russia and the UK) that will step into the vacuum to continue uninterrupted fuel supply for India, in case nuclear cooperation with the US ceases.
As for cancelling the Crawford ranch visit to meet Bush, the man the Left loves to hate, clearly, the PM did not want to exacerbate the political crisis with the parties that support his government in power.
Highly placed sources said the Crawford visit was to have taken place this weekend, that is August 24-26, since Bush spends most of August at home on the ranch. But what with the political crisis engulfing his government, the PM probably thought cancellation, at least for the time being, was a small price to pay.
Moreover, the monsoon session of Parliament was originally scheduled to also end today. But now that it ends on September 14, the PM could not possibly leave the country in the middle.
The government sources insisted the PM was ``in no mood to back down’’ in the face of the Left challenge that Delhi not take the next steps over the nuclear deal, that is not have an India-specific meeting at the IAEA.
The PM firmly believes that India’s growing international reputation is at stake if a deliberate decision is taken to go-slow on the nuclear deal.
In fact, MEA sources pointed out that preliminary talks with the IAEA on an India-specific safeguards agreement have been underway for many months now, and have been taking place alongside the 123 negotiations.
The sources said a go-slow at this stage would have a terrible impact on taking the nuclear deal to its logical conclusion. That naysayers like China, Ireland and Nordic states like Sweden and Norway, all members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, could point to the crippling domestic debate and ask if India could still be trusted.
Under the circumstances, a ``safe deadline’’ to go to the IAEA would have to be by the end of October, a month later for the Nuclear Suppliers Group and after that to the US Congress for a yes-no vote.
However, if the domestic crisis plays out longer than expected, sources said the deadline for the US Congress to pass its vote could be stretched to March-April 2008.
``If the US Congress doesn’t pass the deal by then, it is as good as dead,’’ the sources said.
After April, the US election will definitely get into full swing, and it may be difficult to get the attention of distracted US lawmakers.
ENDS
New Delhi, August 24, 2007 : In the hullabaloo over the Indo-US nuclear deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has quietly decided to call off his visit to US President George Bush’s Crawford ranch in Texas.
But in a clear sign that he is not backing down in the face of the Left challenge demanding Delhi not get into a strategic alliance with America, the PM has decided to widen the ambit of the current debate, by inviting other nuclear powers like France to intensify its engagement with India.
It is now confirmed that French president Nicholas Sarkozy will be the chief guest at India’s 58th Republic Day celebrations on January 26, 2008.
Sarkozy’s France is the world’s largest consumer of nuclear energy and French companies have been deliriously eyeing India’s nuclear energy market.
In fact, the 123 nuclear agreement between India and the US names France as one of three countries (the others are Russia and the UK) that will step into the vacuum to continue uninterrupted fuel supply for India, in case nuclear cooperation with the US ceases.
As for cancelling the Crawford ranch visit to meet Bush, the man the Left loves to hate, clearly, the PM did not want to exacerbate the political crisis with the parties that support his government in power.
Highly placed sources said the Crawford visit was to have taken place this weekend, that is August 24-26, since Bush spends most of August at home on the ranch. But what with the political crisis engulfing his government, the PM probably thought cancellation, at least for the time being, was a small price to pay.
Moreover, the monsoon session of Parliament was originally scheduled to also end today. But now that it ends on September 14, the PM could not possibly leave the country in the middle.
The government sources insisted the PM was ``in no mood to back down’’ in the face of the Left challenge that Delhi not take the next steps over the nuclear deal, that is not have an India-specific meeting at the IAEA.
The PM firmly believes that India’s growing international reputation is at stake if a deliberate decision is taken to go-slow on the nuclear deal.
In fact, MEA sources pointed out that preliminary talks with the IAEA on an India-specific safeguards agreement have been underway for many months now, and have been taking place alongside the 123 negotiations.
The sources said a go-slow at this stage would have a terrible impact on taking the nuclear deal to its logical conclusion. That naysayers like China, Ireland and Nordic states like Sweden and Norway, all members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, could point to the crippling domestic debate and ask if India could still be trusted.
Under the circumstances, a ``safe deadline’’ to go to the IAEA would have to be by the end of October, a month later for the Nuclear Suppliers Group and after that to the US Congress for a yes-no vote.
However, if the domestic crisis plays out longer than expected, sources said the deadline for the US Congress to pass its vote could be stretched to March-April 2008.
``If the US Congress doesn’t pass the deal by then, it is as good as dead,’’ the sources said.
After April, the US election will definitely get into full swing, and it may be difficult to get the attention of distracted US lawmakers.
ENDS
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