NEW DELHI — The political tussle in India over a landmark nuclear cooperation deal with the United States has reached a fevered stage, prompting warnings that the dispute could topple the Indian government and force early elections.
Raucous debates in Parliament and recriminations in the media have rocked the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has staked much of his country's foreign policy and his own political capital on the agreement going through.
The accord would allow American companies to sell and share civilian nuclear technology with India, which would, in exchange, open some of its reactors to international inspections for the first time.
Although the pact has generated opposition here since its inception, the protest broke wide open in the last few days after a group of communist parties demanded that the government put off upcoming talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency aimed at putting final touches on aspects of the deal.
The leftists do not belong to the governing coalition put together by Singh's Congress Party. However, their support has been crucial to propping up the government, and their opposition presents Singh with his most serious political crisis since he assumed power three years ago.
The leftists' objections to the deal draw on a deep well of suspicion toward Washington, which New Delhi has historically held at arm's length. Although the agreement has been hailed by many as the most important symbol of improving ties between the world's two most populous democracies, critics on the left say it tethers India too closely to American foreign policy and interests.
Attacks have also come from the right, which portrays the deal as an infringement on national sovereignty because of ambiguous provisions that could penalize India if it conducted nuclear weapons tests.
Even by the rough-and-tumble standards of Indian politics, the standoff over the nuclear accord has produced extraordinary scenes of rancor in recent days.
On Friday, George Fernandes, a former defense minister from the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, accused Singh of lying to the nation about the deal and said that if the prime minister were a political leader in China, he would be shot.
This week, India's ambassador to Washington, Ronen Sen, retorted by comparing opponents of the accord to "headless chickens." The remark caused such an uproar in Parliament on Tuesday that the session had to be suspended.
