Left, BJP surprised by government's IAEA move

The Left parties on Wednesday night said that the government's move to get the draft nuclear safeguards agreement circulated to the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors was 'expected', especially after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks that the nuclear watchdog will be approached very soon.

The Bharatiya Janata Party expressed surprise about how the draft was circulated when External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said that the government would approach the IAEA only after winning a trust vote.

Meanwhile, the Congress declined to comment on reports that India has gone to the IAEA on the Indo-US nuclear deal.

"I have no immediate comments to offer. I am assessing the things," All India Congress Committee media department chairperson M Veerappa Moily told PTI.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwary said that there was no contradiction between what the External Affairs Minister had said and the circulation of the draft at the IAEA.

The IAEA has circulated the draft to the Board so that it could be ready in case India has to approach the nuclear watchdog formally, Tiwary said.

Apparently reconciled that the government will push ahead with the deal, Communist Party of India leader D Raja said that the government could be more transparent and more truthful to the country.

"There is no transparency at all with what the government is doing," he said.

Both Raja and BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy saw a contradiction in today's development and Mukherjee's statement.

Rudy termed the turn of events as a 'midnight shock and a fraud on the nation'. The act at the IAEA was most uncalled for and did not have sanctity and it is unacceptable to the BJP, he said.

President should intervene and sack the Manmohan Singh government for constitutional impropriety of moving ahead with the international deal under minority status, he told PTI.