Indian Nuclear Deal Critics Seek One-Year Delay

Critics of a tentative U.S.-Indian nuclear trade agreement plan to delay the pact until a new U.S. president takes office in January 2009, a key political leader said yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 6).

“We would like the government of India to initiate a comprehensive talk with the new administrative dispensation that would come to power in the United States after the coming presidential elections,” said Prakash Karat, head of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The deal would enable India to purchase U.S. nuclear technology and materials in exchange for placing the nation’s civilian nuclear activities under international supervision.

Four communist parties in India have criticized the agreement for allowing U.S. interference into Indian affairs.  The pact would begin an era of “nuclear blackmail,” Karat said.

The four parties are key supporters of the government’s ruling coalition and have threatened to withdraw their support and force early elections if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh advances the deal (The Hindu, Feb. 12).

U.S. officials have warned that waiting for a new president could end the deal permanently.

“If this agreement is not processed in the present (U.S.) Congress, it is unlikely that this deal will be offered again to India,” U.S. Ambassador to India David Mulford said Saturday (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Feb. 12).

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