New Delhi: The Indo-US Nuclear deal is dead and that's the reality Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may have to face on Monday when the Left-UPA nuclear panel meets for what could be the final meet on Monday.
The Left wants no dilly-dallying and a categorical answer from the Government on the nuke deal. It could even push further and demand a public statement explicitly stating an early demise of the deal.
Meanwhile, in a latest development, the Canadian government has announced that it is considering on a proposed exemption for India from the Nuclear Supplier's Group (NSG) guidelines.
This will greatly help India to import nuclear material and technology under the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal — if at all the deal is passed.
As a member of NSG, Canada gets a vote on whether to accept an agreement between the US and India to resume trading of civilian nuclear technology and materials.
"Canada is considering the proposed exemption for India from the Nuclear Suppliers Group guidelines in accordance with Canadian interests and principles," said a spokesperson at the Foreign Affairs Department, Bernard Nguyen, was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.
But he also stressed Canada hadn't retreated from a decision to sever its nuclear ties with India, which has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, in the 1970s after New Delhi conducted its first nuclear test.
"Canada's current nuclear non-proliferation policy and multilateral commitments prohibit nuclear cooperation with India, at this time," Nguyen was further quoted by PTI as saying.
Earlier this month, India's High Commissioner to Canada R L Narayan had said his country hadn't formally approached the Canadians, but that it hoped to build on an agreement in principle that was approved under former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin in September, 2005, to expand nuclear cooperation between the two countries.
Following his election in 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was looking at the possibility of an arrangement with India "with some degree of caution."
(With inputs from PTI)
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