Last push to Indo-US nuclear deal

Prime Minister of India is seeking Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi’s intervention to give a last push to the Indo-US nuclear deal in the face of Left parties stiff criticism. Left parties have decided to oppose any steps to operationalize the deal. The talks, on the deal with the Left parties are now rescheduled to June 25, 2008.

Though the deal is yet to be ratified by the US congress, the US government is still very keen in going for the deal and says: “India needs to make some tough choices”.

On it’s part, the US could have done much more than just putting the ball in India’s court. The US should take the India’s IAEA safeguards accord in its final form and prevail upon the NSG cartel to exempt India from the applicable conditions. The way US managed its other friendly non-NPT nation like Israel, the US should get the Congress approval (in-spite of Hyde Act stipulations), may be with some manageable or adjustable conditions, and present the final deal to the Indian government. It should be remembered that the deal is also going to aid US commercial interests in a big way.

Under such situations, may be, the Indian government be able to get consensus with the other political partners and may even risk the withdrawal of support from some parties and go for the deal. The condition should be: To acquire the same benefits and advantages as other leading countries with advance nuclear technology.

On Indian part, for any near-term enhancement in nuclear power contribution, India needs uranium from the NSG countries. If the deal is not coming through, it will be a big loss for India in its huge investments in the nuclear power plants and a bigger loss for Nuclear Power in general (IAEA to take note), since India has very ambitious nuclear power programs in the future.