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"Its best chances lie within the compass of what is left in the Bush administration because they have put their prestige on the line as this is one of the few positive things they can claim," Harold Gould, Visiting Scholar, Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Virginia said.
With Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns slated to step down in March, Gould said the Bush administration will have to find someone as effective as him or there would be questions on whether the administration can carry it off.
Gould's recent book "Sikhs, Swamis, Students and Spies: The India Lobby in the United States,1900-1946" was a highly acclaimed scholarly piece of work that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had mentioned as one of his favorite reads in 2007.
"There is very much less chance of the civilian nuclear deal happening if the Democrats come in," Gould said and added "there is a danger of time running out for the civilian nuclear deal".
"On the democratic side there are still a lot of these leftovers or the residuals of the old non proliferation cult. I call them the non proliferation Ayatollahs," he said.
Interestingly, US Ambassador to India David C Mulford had yesterday favoured completion of the processes involved in the deal during the tenure of the Bush administration, failing which he warned "practical problems" can push it to 2010.
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RatingAs an Indian I would much rather see the Indo-US nuclear dead than that we Indians should be seen as a surrogate of the United States because of the Hyde Act. I cannot see why the upper classes of India especially those who,ostensibly, want to send their children to U.S. for higher studies but to themselves escape the coming wrath of the people whom they have been repressing for centuries, making it easy for their children and themselves to beguile the Americans by painting the whole Indian nation as barking poodles in the future, when the Americans are going into a economic and military standoff with the Chinese
This deal is more in need for the US and other NSG countries more than the pojected advantages to India and hence India should have bargained better. Maybe, putting the deal in the back burner itself may be a strategy. The left is playing politics of convenience and the perceived losing of foreign policy independence is nothing but a smoke screen. More serious issues of strategic nature are at stake with the text and sub-text of the deal as it stands now. Please read the articles by Mr. Arun Shourie since 2005 on the pages of IE to get the details. The US has been very clear on the objectives, but the Indian politicians do not appear trust-worthy unless thay are incompetent.
So long as we have Chinese purchased stooges in India, Nuclear deal will not go through.Indian voters should show the comunists the exit door in the next elections. India has no future with these traitors.
It matters little whether Democrats or Republicans,come into power next year.USA is driven by money and profit, this principle is universal in USA. It matters a jot which colour shirts they weare.The second dynamic factor compelling USA to form a strategic alliance with India, is the slow and steady rise of China. USA needs India badly to counter China'shegemony in Asia and vice versa.It is a matter of time before India/USA,Nuclear Deal is done.Obscurantist will always waffle on about 123 Agreement, which is basically a red herring, used by the leftish thugs to stall the progressof the deal,which is a sham and an outrage.The truth is India needs nuclear power stationsas soon as possible so that all the villages in India can be electrified and also enhance energy security,rather than exposing itself to risky and unreliable Islamists states. It must also be pointed that the safest PWR nuclear stations are developed by Areva, from France. They have an outstanding record of safety and efficiency.It is a shame the left goons are stalling the progress and in the process denying the poor and the down trodden,the opportuity to develop and progress.
The present Nuclear Deal raised some degree of apprehensions both in India (mainly Left) and US (mainly democrats) which indicates healthy democratic process. At the same time we are running short of time that goes beyond reasons of which party will have its incumbent in White House next year.Democrats’ apprehension is that India is not a signatory of NPT. Agreed, but at the same time it is a “Nuclear Responsible State”. From the time Pokhran I (1974) to till date the nuclear capability of India never had been used as deterrence factor nor was the technology passed onto other states even under serious economic conditions in early 90s where transfer of nuclear technology could take care of external debts. But India preferred hardship than to involve internationally unacceptable wrong doings Whereas, there are “Nuclear Rogue States” that signed NPT, acquired nuclear technology through stolen means, use it as deterrent factor and worse of all passing that technology to other “rogue” states. This aspect is open for discussion.The apprehension in India is that possible compromise in strategic and foreign policy. India had best of foreign policy in 1962 and then part of it occupied by aggression and so far the same is not vacated. That aggression could continue but for intervention of JFK the situation was saved. Recently this was mentioned by one Rajya Sabha member too. To safe guard the country (India) from similar situation in near future, some clauses in123 Agreement and the one who are raising objections in India need to see whole picture in a different angle for New Clear-Nuclear Deal. Hopefully we will not run out of time.
What a joke Vijay? My dear friend Politics and Principles do not go well together. Politics goes well with power hunger and money. I do not know if you heard of Kyoto treaty? Clinton did not want to sign the treaty. What happened to the principles. I do like the democratic party style but in reality, its all about the money and power. Why do you think Singh is not going ahead the deal, if he did so, next day he is out of office. It needs lot of courage and honesty to do some thing good for the nation. That needs selflessness, which most politicians do not have. One thing I can say for sure is that India will benefit if a republican comes to office. Even if it is going to be a democrat it is not going to hurt India badly. Because eventually the government is run by corporations and not by people like you and me. The best thing for India is to take help of Americans, French and Israelis to develop the nuclear technology. Once we reach the top then we can decide our foreign policy just like china.
What is at stake with the 123 deal with the US is not foreign policy or its independence. That is a smoke-screen perhaps dsigned to confuse the issues. The whole thrust of teh deal is to get India back to the NPT through teh back door so to speak. Please read the series of articles penned by Mr. Arun Shourie on the pages of IE to get a bird's eye view of the issues involved. This is not to say that teh US has been tricking India. They have been more than forthright, but Indian politicians are not it would seem.
Democrats is a party of principles not hyppocrites. How can one punish Iran for processing Uranium when they, Iranians, have a right to do so under non-proliferation treaty which they have signed. Not only India has not signed the non-proliferation treaty but violated all the norms of this treaty. Republicans will do business with anybody as long as there is money. Seventeen out of Nineteen 9/11 hijackers came out of Saudi Arabia and Bush dances and hugh their king!
Hey Gokhale, What do you mean "violated all the norms of this (NPT) treaty"? How can India violate a treaty that it had not signed in the first place? Just to remind you, there are clear limits to putting out garbages such as this, buddy.
The problem with nuclear deal is that Left is opposed to name of USA.They are opposed on grounds of how much we are giving up.Alternatives always exist but the strength to persue such alternatives must also be there.To convince left is the only way out.Or lobbying with BJP must be done in which case the congressi neta's who are there only to talk about Sonia and Rahul will spew venom on Manmohan.All this will delay the deal.Only way out is to bring out the real issues of gains and what will happen if those gains are not taken.It took India 25 years to develop ICBM's it will take 20 years for us to develop technology for nuclear power indegeneously but can we wait for such time.What will happen if we wait what problems can unravel themselves this should be the agenda and it must be taken to villages which needs power.Only then will it be possible for Manmohan to go ahead with full steam.A crises must be shown.
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