03-03-2008, 07:59 AM
Reuters
New Delhi, February 29, 2008
<b>Nuclear deal, elections on menu after Budget</b>
Congress has strengthened its hand against the opposition and Left allies
with a <b>farmer-friendly Budget, raising a chance of early elections and reviving
hope for a controversial nuclear deal.</b>
Congress leaders had been reluctant to push forward the civilian nuclear
cooperation deal with the United States in the face of staunch opposition from
their communist allies, who had threatened to bring down the coalition over the
issue.
US officials warned this month that time was fast running out for the deal,
which would end decades of nuclear isolation for India and allow it to access
international nuclear fuel and equipment.
Many analysts had all but written the agreement off.
But Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram upset those calculations on
Friday with a budget aimed squarely at elections and India's rural poor, with a
<b>$15 billion scheme to waive loans held by 40 million small farmers.</b>
Elections have to be held by May 2009, but Congress now has less to fear from
an earlier vote, analysts say, meaning its leader Sonia Gandhi might just call
the Left's bluff over the nuclear deal.
"It's a pre-election Budget, a Budget with an eye for early elections, but
whether or not they will go for it I don't know," said Mahesh Rangarajan, a
political analyst and history professor at Delhi University.
"Sonia Gandhi has to make the decision."
<b>Newspapers reported on Friday that the government was close to concluding a
nuclear safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency in
Vienna,</b> a crucial step in tortuous negotiations over the agreement.
The deal would also need to be ratified by the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers
Group and go back to the US Congress for final approval, in good time before
America's own elections in November.
Supporters of the deal like nuclear expert RR Subramanian were in good
spirits.
"This is nothing short of an election budget," he said.
"They have virtually said goodbye to the Left. <b>The nuclear deal will be done
by July and elections will be in October. This budget clearly indicates the deal
has been saved."</b>
But others said a lot still needed to be done on the nuclear deal in a short
space of time.
"It's 5 to 12 as far as many people are concerned," said one Western diplomat,
"but I think it could go through."
"They may have left it too late, but there is obviously one last bid to push
it through," said political analyst and columnist Prem Shankar Jha.
New Delhi, February 29, 2008
<b>Nuclear deal, elections on menu after Budget</b>
Congress has strengthened its hand against the opposition and Left allies
with a <b>farmer-friendly Budget, raising a chance of early elections and reviving
hope for a controversial nuclear deal.</b>
Congress leaders had been reluctant to push forward the civilian nuclear
cooperation deal with the United States in the face of staunch opposition from
their communist allies, who had threatened to bring down the coalition over the
issue.
US officials warned this month that time was fast running out for the deal,
which would end decades of nuclear isolation for India and allow it to access
international nuclear fuel and equipment.
Many analysts had all but written the agreement off.
But Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram upset those calculations on
Friday with a budget aimed squarely at elections and India's rural poor, with a
<b>$15 billion scheme to waive loans held by 40 million small farmers.</b>
Elections have to be held by May 2009, but Congress now has less to fear from
an earlier vote, analysts say, meaning its leader Sonia Gandhi might just call
the Left's bluff over the nuclear deal.
"It's a pre-election Budget, a Budget with an eye for early elections, but
whether or not they will go for it I don't know," said Mahesh Rangarajan, a
political analyst and history professor at Delhi University.
"Sonia Gandhi has to make the decision."
<b>Newspapers reported on Friday that the government was close to concluding a
nuclear safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency in
Vienna,</b> a crucial step in tortuous negotiations over the agreement.
The deal would also need to be ratified by the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers
Group and go back to the US Congress for final approval, in good time before
America's own elections in November.
Supporters of the deal like nuclear expert RR Subramanian were in good
spirits.
"This is nothing short of an election budget," he said.
"They have virtually said goodbye to the Left. <b>The nuclear deal will be done
by July and elections will be in October. This budget clearly indicates the deal
has been saved."</b>
But others said a lot still needed to be done on the nuclear deal in a short
space of time.
"It's 5 to 12 as far as many people are concerned," said one Western diplomat,
"but I think it could go through."
"They may have left it too late, but there is obviously one last bid to push
it through," said political analyst and columnist Prem Shankar Jha.