India Passes Nuclear Deal
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NEW DELHI -- India's Parliament approved a final, critical piece of a long-delayed landmark civil nuclear agreement on Monday, a pact regarded as a cornerstone of a Bush-era effort to transform the relationship between the United States and the world's largest democracy.
But even as supporters praised a historic victory, the end result is probably not what the United States had hoped for, nor does it seem likely to signal a new era in relations between the United States and India.
Indeed, some analysts say the compromises needed to move Monday's legislation through India's contentious Parliament could undermine the practical impact of a political, diplomatic and economic accord that took years to negotiate. The legislation still requires the signature of the president, a ceremonial gesture that is virtually guaranteed.
With President Obama scheduled to make his first visit to India in early November, both governments are trying to strengthen a relationship sometimes described as, potentially, a natural and strategic alliance of democracies. But drawing closer has proved complicated as differences remain on issues like trade and climate change, as well as how to effectively deal with Pakistan.
The nuclear issue, putatively about India's future, has set off weeks of bitter political debate in New Delhi and tapped into Indian nationalism and public suspicion of foreign corporate interests, while dredging up a very different chapter in the countries' relations: the 1984 Union Carbide industrial disaster at Bhopal, which killed thousands. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, accused of toadying to the United States, appeared before the lower house of Parliament last week to deny that his allegiance was anywhere but with India.
"We kind of assume that we will be the dominant partner in any partnership," said Teresita C. Schaffer, a former envoy to Sri Lanka who also served as an American diplomat in India. "India does not make that assumption."
Mr. Singh, who announced the nuclear deal in a 2005 joint statement with former President George W. Bush, has an expansive vision of the role of nuclear energy, to which the deal is limited, as a power source for India's future. For decades after its 1974 nuclear weapon test, India had refused to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and was subjected to a three-decade American moratorium on nuclear trade.
First Published August 31, 2010 2:01 am
