The Act is a complete scheme. It sets out the ‘Sense of the Congress’ about the principles that are to govern US policy in this sphere. It sets out, next, particulars of the policy through which those principles are to be realised. Then the specific instruments through which that policy is to be implemented. And, finally, the determinations and reports that the US President must submit to the Congress certifying the extent to which those instruments are securing the policy objectives that the Congress has laid down.

Furthermore, there is no categorisation of sections among binding and non-binding. American spinners keep saying, and it is sad to see how many of our pressmen they are able to have parrot, “but that is non-binding”. I have for three months asked them, “But why don’t you give us a glossary of what is binding and what is not binding?” Each time, those officials and educators have said they will send a “marked up copy” of the legislation showing what alone is binding. They have not sent one.

The other day, when the three educators came to me, there was a new variant on this spin: “We can’t. The Congress will be after us. But let the Indian Government say that such and such sections are not binding, and we will not contradict it.”

Asking for acts of faith

American officials say in private, as one of the principal architects of the deal tried at length to convince me, that the Administration is determined not to let the provisions that are causing concern in India come in the way. We will get our lawyers to study the Act, they say, and tell us which are the sections not complying with which would amount to a violation of the law. The Administration, they say, will implement only those sections. Like every Administration since Nixon, this Administration will just not have the Congress encroach on the Executive’s right to implement foreign policy, they proclaim. Of course, no official will be prepared to say so in public, they say, but you can be confident on this score.

... contd.