Despite the last-ditch opposition to the India-US civil nuclear cooperation deal, the US Senate voted 85-12 on Thursday last in favour of the historic deal. Significantly, each of the six “killer” amendments proposed to the bill, which India had said would compel it to reject the nuclear deal, was easily defeated. Although the bill passed by the Senate will now be reconciled with a similar bill passed by the House of Representatives in July and both chambers will then have to approve the legislation in its final form, the manner in which the US Congress has favorably expressed its intent goes to show that everyone right from the Congress to the White House wants this deal to succeed. In fact the sheer size of the victory margin (in both cases) indicates a strong bipartisan support.
The Senate vote as such should encourage both New Delhi and the Bush Administration to now move forward and give a final binding to this historic agreement. As far as some of the points in both bills making New Delhi apprehensive, the Bush Administration should understand the presence of a strong domestic constituency in India which is opposing the nuclear deal. Washington should remain open to addressing the concerns raised by the present UPA Government so as to ensure that the nuclear cooperation between India and US becomes a “living reality”.
That there is bipartisan support to the nuclear deal is apparent from the comments of both Democrats—who see the deal as a giant step closer to approving a major shift in US-Indian relations and thereby increasing the prospects for stability and progress in South Asia and in the world at large—and the Republicans who view this agreement as the most important strategic diplomatic initiative undertaken by President Bush. All this goes to show that the treatment that this nuclear deal is getting ought to be of the privilege kind and New Delhi no doubt is being seen as a unique case. As aptly put by US Undersecretary Nicholas Burns, India is being treated by the US as a unique exceptional country. He goes to on to say that no other country will qualify for such an offer.
Leaving aside such platitudes, the US also stands to gain as the deal with New Delhi will help strengthen international security and non-proliferation efforts. More than anything else, the India-US nuclear-deal represents the face of the post-cold war new world order. Washington would be the first to admit that it’s past non-proliferation policies and of the discriminatory framework of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) had alienated an emerging country such as India concerned as it was with its own security interests. Now that India has become a de-facto nuclear power, it would be in the overall interest of international security to engage New Delhi.
The nuclear-deal should also be seen in the larger context of the elevation of India-United States relationship which is now a strategic partnership as duly acknowledged both by the present Republican President and also his predecessor Bill Clinton a Democrat. If the deal is good for America, India and good for the international community, there is no reason why a win-win situation cannot be finally arrived at.
