India Puts Off U.S. Nuclear Deal for Four Weeks

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s administration today said it would delay pursuing a civilian nuclear trade agreement with the United States for four weeks after it was unable to reach a compromise with Indian communists who have opposed the deal, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Oct. 18).

Representatives from Singh’s ruling Congress party met today with communists who have threatened to withdraw support from the government and push for early elections if the administration attempted to put the deal into effect.

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the deal would not be “operationalized” prior to  the next planned discussions on Nov. 16.

The administration seemed to concede defeat over the deal last week when Singh expressed an unwillingness to end his term in power early to pursue the nuclear deal.  He was also said to have expressed disappointment about resistance to the deal during a separate meeting with Indian communists.

D. Raja, the deputy head of the Communist Party of India, said before the talks that the communists would ask the government “to state its position clearly, to tell us whether the nuclear deal is on hold or not.”

Sitaram Yechury, a top official of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which has also opposed the nuclear deal, said the communists would reconsider their position based on the outcome of talks today.

Yechury called on Singh’s administration to clarify “how it wishes to proceed and on that basis, we will take our future decisions.”

Political analyst Neerja Chowdhury said that one of three possible intentions has guided Singh’s recent statements about the nuclear deal.

“One is that he has had enough.  He is feeling let down by his alliance partners within the government and the communists,” she said.

“The second is that the Congress is keeping the talks going with the communists as a face saver to saying that the deal has been shelved.

“The third is that the Congress could keep the talks going” before December elections in India’s western state of Gujarat, she said.

Several opinion polls have suggested that Singh’s Congress party could win enough seats in India’s parliament to form an independent government, but Indian opinion polls have proven unreliable in the past.

“If Congress does well in the (Gujarat) polls, the government could call for elections,” catching its communist allies off-guard, Chowdhury said (Elizabeth Roche, Agence France-Presse/Google News, Oct. 22).

Meanwhile, the Canadian government said it is considering whether to vote for an arrangement that would allow members of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group to export nuclear equipment to India although the country has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the CanWest News Service reported.

“Canada is considering the proposed exemption for India from the Nuclear Suppliers Group guidelines in accordance with Canadian interests and principles,” said Bernard Nguyen, a spokesman for Canada’s Foreign Affairs Department.

Nguyen added, however, that Canada has not changed its decades-old stance against conducting nuclear trade with India.

“Canada's current nuclear nonproliferation policy and multilateral commitments prohibit nuclear cooperation with India, at this time,” Nguyen said (Mike De Souza, CanWest News Service/National Post, Oct. 20).

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