Manmohan-Bush meeting nothing to do with text circulation: NSA

New Delhi, Jul 11 (UNI) National Security Adviser M K Narayanan today said the meeting of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with US President George Bush on July 9 had nothing to do with circulation of the safeguards text to IAEA.

India didn't circulate the documents to the IAEA, but gave a letter the previous night to them saying they could circulate the documents, and presumably, they did so soon after, said Mr Narayanan.

''We decided to move the text after the Left decided to withdraw their support,'' he told TimesNow TV.

The Left did not wait for the government to clarify their doubts at the meeting of the UPA-Left coordination panel slated for July 10, and decided on July seven to pull out, so decision was taken to move the documents the next day, he said.

Mr Narayanan stressed that the issue was how soon could the text be put into circulation because India was trying to see whether it was possible to meet the deadline of July 28. ''We were actually running short of time,'' he added.

He said the Left had no mind of their own and did not understand the technicalities of the deal. They have based their opposition on the basis of the views of ''a couple of people in the nuclear scientific community who are in a sense oppositionist,'' he added.

When asked why External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee made an announcement on July 9 saying that they will not take the next step to the IAEA until they take a trust vote on the floor of the house whereas the government had already decided that the text should be circulated, Mr Narayanan said the PM consulted the External Affairs Minister before making the recommendation for circulating the documents to the IAEA.

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