Washington, June 28 (IANS) Landmark legislation approved by a key US Congress panel to take the India-US nuclear deal forward has several references that to the uninitiated may look unsavoury for India, but are in fact something quite different.
These references are mere rhetorical exhortations contained in two new 'Sense of Congress' and 'Statement of Policy' sections that are neither enforceable or binding on either side, analysts noted.
Leaving the operative portion untouched, these sections were introduced in an altogether new bill by its authors, Republican chairman Henry Hyde of Illinois and Tom Lantos of California, the leading Democrat in the House panel build a broader bipartisan consensus around the deal.
The 37-5 margin in the International Relations Committee of the House of Representatives favouring the new bill authorising President George W. Bush to exempt India from US Atomic Energy Act restrictions on export of US nuclear know-how is a clear measure of the success of this fine balancing act.
The Senate Foreign Relations committee is expected to follow suit by voting on a similar bill prepared by Republican Chairman Richard Lugar of Indiana and Democrat Joseph Biden of Delaware Thursday (June 29), just before the Congress goes into a ten-day recess.
But binding or not binding the unsavoury references are bound to raise some hackles back in India even as they managed to bring round many a critic of the deal in America.
Diplomatic sources said looking at the bigger picture, New Delhi need not be unduly perturbed by these references, for in the long run things are not going to work if the US Congress approves the India-US nuclear deal only with a narrow and partisan vote.
For instance, the reference to Iran is neither binding nor enforceable. There is no time frame either for securing 'India's full and active participation in United States efforts to dissuade, isolate, and, if necessary, sanction and contain Iran for its efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, including a nuclear weapons capability (including the capability to enrich or process nuclear materials), and the means to deliver weapons of mass destruction' set as a foreign policy objective for America.
Similarly, the requirement for the president to report by Jan 31 every year on the progress each year on the achievement of set policy objectives, and steps planned to accomplish them, has no deal stopping provisions.
In South Asia too, Washington seeks to achieve a moratorium on the production of fissile material for nuclear explosive purposes by India, Pakistan, and China, and the conclusion and implementation of a treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons to which both the US and India become parties.
Significantly, the move to seek to halt the increase of nuclear weapon arsenals in South Asia, and to promote their reduction and eventual elimination includes both Pakistan and China.
On the other hand, the bill sets out India specific criteria for civilian nuclear cooperation with countries that have never become a party to the Non Proliferation Treaty and remain outside that treaty's legal regime - that would practically exclude countries like Pakistan.
It is in the national security interest of the US to deepen its relationship with India across a full range of issues, including peaceful nuclear cooperation, the bill says as India meets the three point criteria: a demonstrated responsible behaviour towards non-proliferation, a functioning and uninterrupted democratic system of government, and is working with US on non-proliferation related foreign policy initiatives.
The India-specific legislation exempting New Delhi from three crucial provisions of the US Atomic Energy Act - sections 123, 128 and 129 - will give Washington the freedom to negotiate the formal nuclear agreement with India even without full scope safeguards, apply for nuclear export licences and export reprocessing equipment and technology to it.
The legislation also sets out a rigid time frame for the Congress so that the two step approval process - a waiver authority to the President followed by an up-and-down vote on the 123 agreement-set out in the legislation is completed by August.
The legislation gives the US president waiver authority once seven conditions are fulfilled: a separation plan, a safeguards agreement, progress on an additional protocol with IAEA, progress on FMCT, export control legislation, MTCR, Australia Group, Waassenaar and the US-sponsored Proliferation Security Initiative.
All of these are well within the parameters set out in the July 18 and March 2 joint statements of President Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and thus well within India's comfort threshold.
© 2006 Indo-Asian News Service | 
