THE COALITION YEARS by Mukherjee & Pranab

Author:Mukherjee & Pranab [Mukherjee & Pranab]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mobilism
Publisher: Rupa Publications
Published: 2017-10-13T00:00:00+00:00

JOINT UPA–LEFT COMMITTEE

Nevertheless, due to the concerns raised by the Left parties, the government, on 30 August 2007, announced that a mechanism would be established to evaluate their objections. Thus, a Joint UPA–Left committee was constituted. The Congress was represented by P. Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid and Veerappa Moily. From the Left, A.B. Bardhan and Sudhakar Reddy represented the CPI, Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury brought forth the views of the CPM, while Debabrata Biswas and Chandrachoodan and Abani Roy were members of the group from the Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), respectively. I was made the convener of this group.

It was decided that the committee’s findings would be taken into account before the operationalization of the civil nuclear cooperation.

The complete absence of a convergence of interests between the two sides meant that tempers ran high in every meeting of the committee. These meetings, conducted at my residence, were followed by a joint press briefing by Sitaram and myself. Prakash Karat was absolutely clear that the Left would not support any agreement with the US. In my assessment, Karat also believed that Sonia Gandhi would call off the deal owing to the stiff opposition from the Left. But I was determined to pursue it, despite this resistance, with a view to bolster our country’s ever-increasing energy requirements.

The committee met nine times between September 2007 and June 2008. The Left parties submitted six notes and rejoinders on the issues examined by the committee. The UPA, in response, submitted five notes, including one response to two rejoinders sent by the Left parties on the same day.

In our response to the Left parties we mentioned:

‘Hyde Act does not apply to India. India’s commitment will arise from the 123 bilateral cooperation agreement which once approved by the US Congress will become law. The 123 agreement as the prevailing law will then delineate the specific rights and the responsibility of the US and India that govern and control the agreement’s implementation.’123

The Agreement is not circumscribed by the various US laws and stands on its own since customary international law (Articles 26 and 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969) would ensure that the Hyde Act does not apply to India or override the agreement. Besides, the US Constitution provided for the treaties made under the authority of the US Government to be the supreme law of the land.

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