The NPT regime insisted that India could either have nuclear weapons or civil nuclear energy cooperation. The US Congress finally bought into the Bush Administration’s argument that India should have both.

In declaring that this exemption from global nuclear rules is only for India and a similar favour will not be extended to Pakistan, the US Congress broke the long-standing sense of nuclear parity between New Delhi and Islamabad.

In accepting that New Delhi is a nuclear weapon power, and making special rules for civilian nuclear cooperation with it, the US has also established a practical nuclear equivalence between India and China.No wonder then, that Pakistan so actively lobbied against the nuclear legislation in Washington, and China raised so many reservations against the Indo-US nuclear deal.

While the Republicans and Democrats came together after a divisive election that saw the former being ousted from the majority status in both houses, cynics might yet expect the opposition parties in India will poke the nation in the eye.

The opponents of the deal here hope that the BJP and the CPI(M) will grill the government on the final version of the legislation and its presumed differences with Singh’s assurances to the Parliament in the Monsoon session.

Having seen the tactic once, the Centre is in no mood to countenance the attempt to mar a long awaited national triumph. In ideal circumstances, the BJP would have been expected to take credit for laying the ground work for the nuclear deal with the US and later consummated by the Congress government.

... contd.