Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Left parties want to stop the Indo-US nuclear deal in its tracks but the process to operationalise the deal has already begun.
The Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy, Anil Kakodkar, and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran are already liaising with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, which has to clear a special India-specific safeguards protocol.
The Left would not like India to sign any deal with the IAEA since it will bind the country before its concerns with the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group are addressed.
Indian officials have visited many of the 45 nations of the NSG, which is due to meet in September asking them to make an exception for India, since it is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The Left wants an assurance that NSG members will continue fuel supplies to India if, for whatever reason, the US chooses to end the deal.
Countries like Russia, Australia, Britain and France have already indicated their support to the deal while Japan's support may come during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to India next week.
China hasn't committed support but says it will be flexible, especially ahead of Prime Minister's Manmohan Singh visit there this November.
Once the IAEA and the NSG have cleared the deal, the US Congress will take another look at the deal, passing it with a simple yes-no vote.
Indian and US officials then have six months to discuss arrangements for the deal, which must be put into operation a year from the day it is signed.
But it's a step that seems much further away today with the Left putting its sickle in the cold chain.
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