House of Representatives gives approval to N-deal

WASHINGTON DC: The first step toward the signing of the United States-India nuclear cooperation agreement was taken by the House of Representatives on Wednesday, with an overwhelming 359-68 vote to amend the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, and thus allow the US to sell nuclear technology to India.

 

The Senate will take up its version of the bill on Thursday or Friday.

 

The House bill, which will now be named after Henry Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee and its chief author, was debated in the house for over six hours, with six amendments being proposed.

 

Two amendments – proposed by Representatives Howard Berman and Brad Sherman – were defeated as they were considered killer amendments by Hyde and the bill’s co-author and Democratic ranking member of the International Relations Committee Tom Lantos.

 

Both amendments concerned asking the President to certify that India does not increase its levels of uranium it uses towards its weapons programme or that India halt the production of fissile material.

 

The voting pattern in the House of Representatives could be replicated in the Senate as its influential Foreign Relations Committee had voted in 16-2 in favour of the bill. The House International Relations Committee vote was 37-5.

 

“This partnership was long overdue,” Hyde said. “Our current law does not allow the sale of nuclear technology to India. But the agreement between the Bush administration and the Indian government cannot be in effect unless both houses of Congress approve the amendments to the Atomic Energy Act.”

 

Lantos said, “This is no ordinary vote. It is a tidal shift in US-India relations. This will be known as the day when Congress signaled definitively the end of the Cold War paradigm governing interactions between New Delhi and Washington.”

 

Lantos admitted that the agreement is not perfect. “No agreement is perfect between two sovereign nations because the arise from hard negotiations. Compromise was necessary on all sides.  But we must not let the siren song of perfection deafen us to this chance for dramatically strengthening an important and valued ally.”

 

Several leading Congressmen and women spoke in favour of the bill, while Democratic Congressman Edward Markey tried to put a spoke in the wheel more than once with his concerns on nuclear proliferation following a report by a Washington-based think tank on Pakistan’s Khushab nuclear reactor which can potentially produce more than 40 bombs based on plutonium enrichment technology.

 

However, Ed Royce from the Republican Party said that the building of the reactor began in 2000, and that issue was not germane to the current discussion. Markey’s later attempt to scuttle the debate – a motion to recommit the bill back to the House – was also negated by electronic vote.

 

Joseph Crowley, chief deputy Democratic whip and former chairman of the House Caucus on India and Indian Americans, said, “Today we have begun the process of positively redirecting our relationship with India -- a move that will bring both our nations closer and cement a critical partnership that will continue for decades. The success of this deal now lies in the hands of President Bush and the Indian government, who both understand the high stakes of this historic opportunity for both nations.”

 

After the Senate votes on the bill this week, Congress and the Bush administration will wait for the finalizing of India’s negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency on implementing additional protocols and safeguards on India’s civilian nuclear reactors.

 

There will be a delay in the legislation process as Congress breaks for a five-week recess beginning July 29. Both houses of Congress will have to agree on a common language, only after which the bill will become law. The process is expected to get over in September, after which the Bush administration will finalise a bilateral agreement with India.

 

The finalised agreement, which will include IAEA protocols, will be referred back to the Congress for a final, second-round vote.

 

Only after Congress approves that agreement, will the deal finally be in place. State Department officials expect that it could happen by the end of the year.

 

Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asia Affairs Richard Boucher said earlier, “If all those pieces come together and we have the legislation, you know, it's conceivable that all this could be done by the end of the year.  But I can't promise specifically that it will be because each of these factors has to move forward and get concluded on its own track.”

 

Under the proposed deal, the United States will aid the development of civil nuclear power in India in return for New Delhi placing its civil nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency inspections.

The bill emerged after a meeting last year between Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

 

Democratic and Republican leaders in both houses of Congress have expressed strong support for the bill. If it becomes law, the measure would reverse some three decades of US policy to restrict access to nuclear technology.

 

The United States has withheld its civilian nuclear know-how from India since 1974, when it conducted its first nuclear test.   

 

India tested nuclear weapons in 1974 and 1998 and, as a result, is banned by the United States and other major powers from buying fuel for atomic reactors and other related equipment.   

 

Supporters greet the deal as a sign of a geopolitical re-alliance following the Cold War, one that allows India to jump-start its quest for alternative energy, as its economy booms.   

 

Detractors say, however, they are not convinced that India can be trusted to safeguard critical atomic secrets, or to refrain from using atomic material to gain an edge over neighboring rival power, Pakistan.

 

Critics fear the bill could ratchet up the arms race in Asia.