India edgy as lawmaker tells Rice to delay N-deal

.NEW DELHI/ NEW YORK: Alarm bells are ringing in New Delhi after a key US legislator struck a discordant note on Wednesday by asking the Bush Administration to shelve the Indo-US nuclear deal till January 2009 to give the US Congress sufficient time to study the complex issues arising out of this unique accord.

Though Indian officials declined to comment immediately, they appeared perturbed because the legislator is not someone who can be taken lightly. He is Howard Berman, Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who, along with Senator Joe Biden, will pilot the 123 agreement through the US Congress to complete the final stage for operationalisation of the nuclear deal.

In a letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Berman has warned the Bush Administration to ensure that the Indian waiver currently under negotiation with the Nuclear Suppliers Group, is not “inconsistent” with the provisions of the Hyde Act. He has demanded that the waiver include the following key elements: the immediate termination of all nuclear commerce by NSG member states if India detonates a nuclear explosive device or if the IAEA determines that India has violated its safeguards commitments; a prohibition on transfer of enrichment, reprocessing and heavy water production technology by any NSG member to India; and a stipulation that NSG supplier states will not allow India to reprocess nuclear fuel except in a facility that is under permanent and unconditional safeguards.

“All these complex issues should be examined in a serious and detailed fashion and it would be better to shelve the deal till Congress meets in January 2009….Even if the India-specific agreement reaches Congress by September 8, it is unlikely that Congress will have sufficient time to fully consider all the issues surrounding the deal, the associated safeguards agreement, and the NSG decision — and to ascertain their impact on US and global nonproliferation standards,” Berman said in his letter.

Berman’s letter threatens to vitiate the legislative process in the US. Given his key position in the House of Representatives, he could throw a spanner in the works and delay the passage of the 123 agreement.  

His objections are also likely to resonate in a negative way in the ongoing NSG process, which in any case is full of landmines because of the strong non-proliferation concerns of some member countries.

Former Indian ambassador to Washington Lalit Man Singh acknowledged that Berman has introduced “an element of uncertainty’’ in the US legislative process. But he was hopeful that interested parties like the US-India Business Council, the Indian-American community, and Berman’s own colleagues in the Democratic Party will put enough pressure to bring him around.

Berman has struck a sensitive nerve here. India has been demanding an unconditional waiver from the NSG and has made it clear to its American interlocutors, who are leading the negotiations with supplier countries, that it cannot accept references to nuclear testing in the exemption. Aware of the opposition from nations with strong non-proliferation sentiments, US ambassador to India David Mulford had already hinted that an “unconditional’’ waiver may not be possible but the US would try for a “clean’’ exemption.