The deal has caused titanic political battles in New Delhi, where opponents contended that it would make India subservient to the U.S. The proposal nearly toppled Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government.
Only last month, new turmoil erupted in India with the leak of a confidential letter from the U.S. State Department to the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village), that promised the United States wouldn't sell sensitive nuclear technologies to India and would halt nuclear trade if New Delhi conducted a nuclear test.
Critics pointed to the letter as evidence that the deal would limit India's strategic options.
In the debate Wednesday, the bill's supporters tried to quiet critics in the U.S. by pointing out that under 2006 legislation on the deal, the United States will halt nuclear trade with India if New Delhi goes back on the agreement and conducts a nuclear test.
"Despite our disappointment with the overall deal, it is clear that if India violates its pledges on the nuclear moratorium there will be consequences," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Assn., a private nonprofit membership organization that promotes education on nuclear issues.
Administration officials worried at the beginning of last month that the deal might not be passed before Congress recessed for campaigning. But congressional leaders moved the bill along quickly, with only one hearing, to the distress of critics, who contended that more time was needed for deliberations.
Another factor in its approval may have been the reluctance of lawmakers facing reelection to alienate activists in the Indian American community, Kimball said. "Nobody wants to be jeopardizing campaign contributions at this point," he said.
Bush called Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) early Wednesday to discuss the bill, even though both men were also preoccupied with the economic bailout package.
Some former administration officials have said they consider the deal one of the Bush team's three most important foreign policy accomplishments, and its passage comes at a time when the Bush administration is sorely in need of a foreign policy success. The U.S. effort to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons appears to be unraveling again, and militants are gaining strength in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
--
paul.richter@latimes.com
