In six months, the US Congress passed a legislation enabling civil nuclear cooperation with India. It took over a decade for China to get an endorsement of this sort from the US Congress. No wonder there is outrage in the entire non-proliferation community, many of whom see the Indo-US deal as the death of the NPT. Today, as Parliament debates the deal, it should look at reality.

There is a chorus in this country to end the deal because it is intrusive, double-edged, an assault on Indian sovereignty, a way to get India into the non-proliferation mainstream, a hijacking of the Indian weapons programme and a submission before US power.

The fact is that the bill passed on December 8, to be signed into law by US President George W. Bush today, provides a permanent waiver from three sections of the US Atomic Energy Act for the commitments made by India on July 18, 2005. The three sections prohibit the US from entering into civilian nuclear cooperation with countries that have tested a nuclear device after 1978, do not have all their reactors under safeguards and have an active nuclear weapons programme. India is the only country outside the nuclear weapon states to get this waiver.

So, keeping all this in mind, let’s take a look at the criticism.

Critics say: India has been forbidden from nuclear testing in future. The US is pushing CTBT through the back door.

India’s commitment on July 18 is only to voluntary moratorium on testing. There is already an understanding on this in the ongoing 123 Agreement negotiations. Deal or no deal, sanctions will anyhow be triggered in case India tests, under several other US laws. So this legislation essentially states what already exists.

... contd.