India coalition in shake-up

India’s coalition government was undergoing a major shake-up Friday with the dominant Congress party to push ahead with a controversial nuclear deal with the United States and ditch left-wing allies. A four-party bloc of Communist and leftist parties was meeting to discuss what politicians described as the ‘modalities’ of a divorce from the Congress-led government because of the pact. The Congress party, however, was working to avoid being forced into early elections and getting the atomic deal through by negotiating a new alliance with the socialist and regional Samajwadi Party. SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav met the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and the Congress party chief, Sonia Gandhi, separately to finalise their agreement, officials said. After talks with Manmohan, Yadav told reporters that the ‘national interest is more important than politics’ — seen as a sign a deal on reshaping India’s ruling alliance was close. ‘Samajwadi Party’s support to the government and the deal is just a matter of time,’ author and political analyst Rasheed Kidwai told the news agency. ‘The SP leaders consulted former president Abdul Kalam, regarded as the father of India’s missile programme and an authority on nuclear technology, who endorsed the India-US deal as being in our (India’s) interest.’ The nuclear deal — agreed in principle in 2005 — would allow India to buy atomic power plants and technology despite not having signed international non-proliferation pacts. The prime minister argues the pact is crucial for India’s energy security. Manmohan is lined up to meet the US president, George W Bush, on the sidelines of the G-8 meeting in Japan on July 9, taken as another sign that Congress was blazing ahead with implementing the pact the two leaders agreed to in 2006. Tensions between Manmohan and the communists have been running high for months, with the left-wing threatening to pull the plug on the coalition and force elections earlier than May 2009 as scheduled. India’s left says the deal undermines the country’s traditional status as a beacon of the non-aligned movement, and that allowing UN inspections of the civil nuclear programme — as demanded by the Americans — would harm the strategic weapons programme. After their meeting Friday, India’s top Marxist leader Prakash Karat set Monday as a deadline for the government to come out and clearly declare whether it was proceeding with the deal. ‘We wish to know... whether the government is proceeding to seek the approval for the safeguards agreement by the International Atomic Energy Agency,’ Karat said. ‘Please let us know by July 7, 2008,’ Karat told reporters, adding that the left-wing parties would meet a day later for a final decision on withdrawing support. The United States, meanwhile, has been pressing India to move on the deal before the end of Bush’s tenure, warning the pact may not survive in its current form under the next administration. Before the deal is voted on by the US Congress, New Delhi also needs to earn a waiver from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.