Twitter
Advertisement

Mid-term elections could decide fate of Indo-US nuke deal

Congressional polls on Nov 7 could change the power pattern in the House and Senate, delaying the historic agreement further.

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

WASHINGTON, DC: In one of his show’s segments titled ‘Headlines,’ comedian Jay Leno had this one to lead off earlier this week, “Democrats Searching Desperately For Ways To Blow November Elections.” He got the laughs (Democrats have lost control over the US Congress for 12 years), but there is an intrinsic truth in that funny-almost every poll run by every news and research agency indicates that the voter mood is swinging in favour of the Democratic Party, which is expected to sweep the House of Representatives, and gain more than a few seats in the Senate.

This swing could put uncertainty over the time frame for the historic US-India Civilian Nuclear Cooperation Agreement to materialise. Bush administration officials had earlier hoped for the bill to pass both houses of Congress before the September-October session was through, but Democratic senators had delayed its introduction by introducing 19 amendments, including ones relating to non-proliferation and dumping of nuclear waste, to which the Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist opposed.

A highly-placed congressional source from the Republican side told DNA, “We tried to pass the piece of legislation before the October recess, and the Democrats objected. They have a huge list of amendments, unnecessary amendments that they need to trim down. They were unable to do that and therefore wouldn’t pass the bill as is.”

This piece of legislation is an amendment to Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954 which will allow transfer of civilian nuclear technology to India. It is only after both arms of Congress pass this legislation that it can become law, thus giving the go-ahead to the Bush administration to finalise the nuclear deal.

All hopes, therefore, are now pinned on the “lame duck” session that begins on November 9, when the current members of Congress meet again before handing over to the newly-elected members. Though, theoretically, the US president has no influence over Congress, President George W Bush called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday to assure him of his administration’s efforts to get the nuclear legislation passed by the Senate in November. As a follow-up, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, will address the Indian media in Washington on Friday to outline the Bush administration strategy on this issue.

Sanjay Puri, founder-chairman of the US-India Political Action Committee, said, “We are hopeful the bill will be introduced in the lame duck session. We are working closely with senators on this.” If the Senate does not pass the bill during this session, the process will begin all over again when the new Congress convenes in January 2007.

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement