US/INDIA:After months of delay, the US Congress yesterday moved towards final approval of legislation that may permit nuclear-armed India to purchase US nuclear reactors and fuel for the first time in three decades.
As debate began, critics decried the nuclear deal as a historic mistake which will devastate efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons but the Bush administration and its supporters insisted civil nuclear commerce will foster ties with the rising south Asian power and open up billions of dollars in trade for US companies.
India and a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign mounted by the US Chamber of Commerce were largely successful in preventing Congress from adding non-proliferation requirements that Delhi found too burdensome or unfair.
The nuclear deal is a "historic mistake which will come back to haunt the United States and the world" and underscores the hypocrisy of American policy, said Rep Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts), a leading critic.
He noted that even as Washington seeks to sell nuclear technology to India - which never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT - it is working to halt the nuclear programme of Iran, which did sign the NPT. "The United States expects the rest of the world to listen to us [ on Iran] while we selectively grant exceptions to countries that never signed the NPT," Mr Markey added.
Key congressmen and senators who negotiated the compromise said the agreement "will help solidify New Delhi's commitments to implement strong export controls, separate its civilian infrastructure from its weapons programme and place additional civilian facilities" under international monitoring.