Congress maintains IAEA text was classified

New Delhi: After the Left Front slammed the UPA Government following unveiling of India’s IAEA safeguards agreement, high level sources on Monday told CNN-IBN that the agreement was, in fact, confidential at the stage of negotiation.

“We released it (the safeguards agreement) in the public domain only after we initialled it, because once initialled, it’s no longer a work-in-progress,” the source said and added, “India initialled IAEA text on July 7 — the day the Left parties chose to announce withdrawal of support.”

To ask IAEA to circulate the draft is a procedural formality only, the sources said.

“Preamble of safeguards agreement is as sacrosanct as the main text. China’s position is similar. They have not offered clear assurance of support at Nuclear Suppliers’ Group approval stage yet,” he added.

IAEA Spokesperson Melissa Fleming, too, spoke to CNN-IBN and said, “IAEA Secretariat was waiting for India to circulate the statement and it has been done. This is a standard procedure of putting it on website. We have no jurisdiction of how they want to circulate the document.”

Meanwhile, Congress has been on the defensive after Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) General Secretary Prakash Karat accused UPA of ‘betraying the nation.’ The Communist leader was pointing out the fact that UPA chose to not share the agreement text with Left — which subsequently forced the Left to pullout from the UPA Government — and made it public only a day after it was circulated among the IAEA members.

Congress Working Committee member Veerappa Moily said, "There is no contradiction between the statement of External Affairs Minister and today’s situation. It was a classified document. It couldn’t have been made public at the stage of negotiations with the IAEA.”

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had earlier stated the Government would go to the IAEA only after it wins the trust vote.

Claiming that the UPA has not lost majority, he said, "it is we who have volunteered for a trust vote, we are saying that we will prove our majority. Nobody has asked us."

Moily said that there is a certain set of norms for the release of the document, which even the US government follows, adding that if the UPA loses the trust vote, they’ll go for elections and withdraw from the IAEA.

“It’s the view of the UPA Government that we would go for trust vote, not the opinion of the President. The present government enjoys majority,” Moily added.

Where does all this leave the External Affairs Minister? Mukherjee had said that the government will approach the IAEA only after the trust vote in Parliament.

But the draft safeguards agreement was circulated among the IAEA board members on Wednesday.

Mukherjee had refused to share the draft with the Left and Opposition parties saying it is a confidential document.

Interestingly, the same was put on the MEA website on Thursday, soon after it was circulated at the IAEA. The Centre has defended Mukherjee on the issue as well, claiming the document was confidential when talks were taking place. It says now that the draft is intialled, it is no more confidential.

Communist Party of India General Secretary AB Bardhan took a potshot at the government.

"The PM meets Bush and green signal is given promptly even without waiting for the trust vote. So I think his position has become untenable. you asked about Pranab Mukherjee, so I am saying this," Bardhan said.

The Government decided to release the draft text of the safeguards agreement after the IAEA decided to "de-restrict" the document, he said as questions were raised why the document was not released earlier despite demands from the Left and opposition parties.

"The position (on the text) has changed. It was a privileged document and was not released to the public domain until after conclusions were taken. IAEA has now decided to de-restrict the text and now we are at liberty to release it," he said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Media Advisor Sanjaya Baru spoke to CNN-IBN.

“There are legitimate reasons why the government has shared the information at a particular time. It is a public statement for the people of the country. The PM will address the Parliament and reply all the issues pertaining to the Indo-US nuclear deal. The PM will brief the President on the G-8 summit and the present political scenario in the country soon.”

The release of the full text of the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards agreement by the UPA on the website of the Ministry of External Affairs has seen the Left crying foul.

Reacting to the release of the IAEA safeguards agreement, Karat said, "Yesterday we had stated that there are no grounds for the government to refuse to make the text public. All talks of classified statement were doctored."

(With inputs from PTI)