Summary: PM Singh faces down growing opposition in India’s Parliament—but is it fully committed? The Left opposes, but not demanding a Parliamentary Probe on the deal. And one quick note—treaties need only the Prime Minister’s approval, not official sanction by Parliament.
While opposition may have been from the BJP opposition party, but now Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is reacting to discontent from his Left Front coalition partners.
From The Hindu:
West Bengal’s ruling Left Front today demanded that the Indo-US civil nuclear deal should not be operationalised and should be placed in Parliament for detailed discussions despite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assertion that it could not be renegotiated.
“Since there is no constitutional provision to scrap the 123 agreement, a constitutional amendment is required,” Left Front chairman Biman Bose said.
MPs should be allowed to give their views on the deal, seek changes in its provisions and insert new paras in it, he said.
Bose, a member of the CPI-M Polit Bureau, said the deal would facilitate a tie-up of the nuclear policies of India and the US, which could not be accepted.
But Prime Minister Singh isn’t caving, and the Left’s opposition seems to be skin-deep:
The Left’s protest against the deal follows rejection by BJP as well as UNPA. While this is a setback to the government’s efforts to forge a consensus and will result in fireworks in the coming session of Parliament, PM’s response shows that the government is determined to stand its ground. It is not likely to agree to a scrutiny of the deal by a joint parliamentary probe — a demand which has come from BJP but which the Left, significantly, did not endorse on Tuesday.
Proliferation Press 