India tells US the facts of the Indo-US nuclear deal..

It was very heartening to hear the Indian Foreign Minister Pranap Mukherjee mention in the Indian Parliament today, the 3 rd of March 2008 regardng the Indo US nuclear deal.

In very simple terms the Minister made it clear to the representatives of the Indian people in Lok Sabha that, what rights and obligations are due to India and expected from India due to the deal are only based on the 123 agreement betwen India and the US and not based on the Hyde Act, which was enacted in the US Congress subsequently. We are not interested in knowing whether the Hyde Act was a subversive act to torpedo any Indian plans to assert itself. The Hyde Act is only for the US Congress and Senate to worry about. If the US Sec of State Ms. Con Rice is reading too much into the Hyde Act and how she expects India to comply with it, she is  outrightly misinterpreting it to her convenience. She is free to do it to any extent she so desires, as long it does not concern us.

Not that even if US agrees to go back to the 123 Act to give US businesses a boost, India would ever budge from it's stand of not giving up it's sovereign right to decide when to use the nuclear weapons if a need arises, the very process of bullying is evident in the statements and actions of US statesmen and decisionmakers.

And we Indians never believe that the people sitting in Capitol are interested only in US interests and not bilateral interests between India and US. We Indians also do not believe that the same decisionmakers at Capitol are so dumb as to think and initiate actions unilaterally unmindful of the future global economic, commercial and strategic equations.

--


George Easaw