Parliament to discuss nuclear deal today

TALKING POINT: The Left may claim the debate will demonstrate that the majority in Parliament is against the deal.

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Keywords: Parliament, Left

New Delhi: After the Nandigram and Taslima issue overshadowed the political tussle on the Indo-US nuclear agreement, the big nuclear debate will take place in Parliament later on Wednesday.

The debate will be crucial for the future of the UPA government. The Left may claim that the debate will demonstrate that the majority in Parliament is against the deal.

The government can also argue that the nature of the opposition is different. Unlike the Left, the BJP is not opposed to closer relations with the US as such.

Leader of the Opposition, L K Advani, tore into the UPA government's arguments on the deal and said that his party was not against a strategic tie-up with the US. However, he added that the deal was a threat to the country's sovereignty and that it would stop India from conducting nuke tests.

He also criticised the government for not taking the Opposition into confidence on the deal, even as it formed a UPA-Left committee to discuss the nuke deal.

In any event, the discussion on the deal will not entail any voting. The government has the advantage of the facts being mostly on its side.

It could, for instance, point out that, overwhelmingly, the international opinion is that India has got a good deal and any agreement with a future US administration is likely to be less favourable.

Indeed, the opposition from the non-proliferation hawks in the US is based on the premise that the deal is much too favourable to India.

However, with the Left, having allowed the government to approach the IAEA, the political temperature has cooled down quite a bit.

And with no voting to follow, the government faces no threat to its survival.

Of course, the UPA is keenly aware that it is in a minority in the House on the nuclear issue. The Left and the BJP are expected to rub that in during Wednesday's debate.

The Congress, however, is insisting that the discussions without voting will prove nothing and the government wouldn't face any embarrassment at all.

(With agency inputs)