08-26-2006, 05:43 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>US N-deal equates India with Pakistan</b>
New Delhi, Aug. 21: Despite the Bush administration claiming the nuclear
deal symbolises a special relationship with New Delhi, a last-minute amendmentÂ
inserted in the recently passed bill by the US House of Representatives
equates India with Pakistan and directs Washington to collaborate with both
countries and also get involved in matters between the two. That is one of the
numerous conditionalities tagged on to the deal by the US House.
Yet, in his speech in the Rajya Sabha, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh skirted
any reference to such conditionalities in the US House bill. In fact, he did
not identify a single area of concern in the House bill, <b>which has shiftedÂ
15 different nuclear benchmarks, making the original deal look barelyÂ
recognisable. </b>
The 11th-hour amendment linking India with Pakistan in the House bill was
inserted as Section 2(8). Named as the Jackson Lee Amendment after its sponsor, the section mandates that the United States should continue its policy of
engagement, collaboration and exchanges with and between India and Pakistan.Â
In a speech full of generalisations and assurances (including some already
broken), Dr Singh cited only one specific concern, that too in the proposed
Senate Bill which unlike the House Bill, has yet to be passed. That concern
related to the requirement for annual certification by the US President for
continuation of nuclear cooperation with India.
The Prime Minister had nothing to say about the Fortenberry Amendment to
Section 4(j) of the House bill that decrees annual public hearings involving
government and non-government witnesses on the growth in India's
nuclear weapons material stockpile, or the same bill's provision to perpetually hang the threat of termination over India's head, or the lack of any exit clause
for India, or even the assorted preconditions demanding New Delhi's full
compliance with various demands before the deal can take effect.
The PM, however, said there has been no shift at least in one of his
positions: international inspections will follow, not predate, the lifting of
all restrictions against India. All restrictions are not going to be lifted,
as US officials have made clear. But if the Bush administration can persuade
the US Congress to keep certain nuclear-technology sanctions against India at
the policy level rather than specify them in the legislation, as senior
official John C. Rood has suggested, Dr Singh will be able to open Indian
facilities to outside inspectors despite a lack of full cooperation.
Significantly, the <b>PMÂ did not mention even one of his broken assurances,
including that India would be treated at par with the other nuclear-weapons
states, enjoying the same rights and benefits as them and undertaking
only the same obligations. Instead, his speech focused on reiterating assurances
not yet broken. </b>
Dr Singh said India has still some concerns about joining the controversial
Proliferation Security Initiative, but he did not utter a word on the
Australia Group and the Wassennaar Arrangement, two other <b>US-led cartels toÂ
which the House bill demands India's unilateral adherence as a precondition,Â
although these regimes were not mentioned in the original deal. </b>
The Jackson Lee Amendment has to be seen against the backdrop of the Bush
administration's persistent efforts to prop up the Pakistani militaryÂ
dictatorship, showering it with multi-billion-dollar economic and military aid.Â
Washington has begun rearming Pakistan with lethal, India-directed offensiveÂ
weapons that whittle away at India's military edge and embolden Islamabad in
its sponsorship of cross-border terror.
The latest USÂ arms package for Pakistan is also the largest ever a $5.1
billion present. Earlier this year, during his first trip to New Delhi as the
new US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, <b>Mr Richard
Boucher publicly demanded that India define its deterrent only in relation to
Pakistan and also that it enter into mutual understandings with Islamabad
in both conventional and nuclear areas. </b>
The US government and Congress are both seeking to reinforce India's pairing
with Pakistan even as US officials claim to have de-hyphenated the two
countries in US policy. In fact, no sooner had the US initiated the Next Steps
in Strategic Partnership with India in early 2004 than it caught Delhi
unawares by designating Pakistan as a Major Non-Nato Ally.
The nuclear deal threatens to do in the nuclear realm what the US arms
supply to Islamabad has sought to achieve in the conventional military field
erode India's edge. While the US and Pakistani governments have confirmed
that Pakistan is building a second plutonium production reactor at Khushab, Dr
Singh refused to clarify in the Rajya Sabha <b>why he unilaterally agreed to
dismantle by 2010 one of the only two plutonium-production reactors India has</b>.
Pakistan is pleased that the <b>Indo-US deal reduces to less than one-third the
number of Indian facilities available to generate weapons-usable fissile
material.</b> While Dr Singh again claimed that the deal does not adversely
affect Indian nuclear military capability, Mr Joseph R. Biden, the ranking
Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, has said that the deal
imposes qualitative and quantitative ceilings that limit the size and sophistication
of India's nuclear-weapons programme.
In his speech, Dr Singh put the <b>number of reactors being opened to perpetual
international inspections at only 14, when in actual fact he has agreed to
open up 35 nuclear facilities</b>Â and establishments as well as rip down two
research reactors Cirus and Apsara.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
New Delhi, Aug. 21: Despite the Bush administration claiming the nuclear
deal symbolises a special relationship with New Delhi, a last-minute amendmentÂ
inserted in the recently passed bill by the US House of Representatives
equates India with Pakistan and directs Washington to collaborate with both
countries and also get involved in matters between the two. That is one of the
numerous conditionalities tagged on to the deal by the US House.
Yet, in his speech in the Rajya Sabha, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh skirted
any reference to such conditionalities in the US House bill. In fact, he did
not identify a single area of concern in the House bill, <b>which has shiftedÂ
15 different nuclear benchmarks, making the original deal look barelyÂ
recognisable. </b>
The 11th-hour amendment linking India with Pakistan in the House bill was
inserted as Section 2(8). Named as the Jackson Lee Amendment after its sponsor, the section mandates that the United States should continue its policy of
engagement, collaboration and exchanges with and between India and Pakistan.Â
In a speech full of generalisations and assurances (including some already
broken), Dr Singh cited only one specific concern, that too in the proposed
Senate Bill which unlike the House Bill, has yet to be passed. That concern
related to the requirement for annual certification by the US President for
continuation of nuclear cooperation with India.
The Prime Minister had nothing to say about the Fortenberry Amendment to
Section 4(j) of the House bill that decrees annual public hearings involving
government and non-government witnesses on the growth in India's
nuclear weapons material stockpile, or the same bill's provision to perpetually hang the threat of termination over India's head, or the lack of any exit clause
for India, or even the assorted preconditions demanding New Delhi's full
compliance with various demands before the deal can take effect.
The PM, however, said there has been no shift at least in one of his
positions: international inspections will follow, not predate, the lifting of
all restrictions against India. All restrictions are not going to be lifted,
as US officials have made clear. But if the Bush administration can persuade
the US Congress to keep certain nuclear-technology sanctions against India at
the policy level rather than specify them in the legislation, as senior
official John C. Rood has suggested, Dr Singh will be able to open Indian
facilities to outside inspectors despite a lack of full cooperation.
Significantly, the <b>PMÂ did not mention even one of his broken assurances,
including that India would be treated at par with the other nuclear-weapons
states, enjoying the same rights and benefits as them and undertaking
only the same obligations. Instead, his speech focused on reiterating assurances
not yet broken. </b>
Dr Singh said India has still some concerns about joining the controversial
Proliferation Security Initiative, but he did not utter a word on the
Australia Group and the Wassennaar Arrangement, two other <b>US-led cartels toÂ
which the House bill demands India's unilateral adherence as a precondition,Â
although these regimes were not mentioned in the original deal. </b>
The Jackson Lee Amendment has to be seen against the backdrop of the Bush
administration's persistent efforts to prop up the Pakistani militaryÂ
dictatorship, showering it with multi-billion-dollar economic and military aid.Â
Washington has begun rearming Pakistan with lethal, India-directed offensiveÂ
weapons that whittle away at India's military edge and embolden Islamabad in
its sponsorship of cross-border terror.
The latest USÂ arms package for Pakistan is also the largest ever a $5.1
billion present. Earlier this year, during his first trip to New Delhi as the
new US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, <b>Mr Richard
Boucher publicly demanded that India define its deterrent only in relation to
Pakistan and also that it enter into mutual understandings with Islamabad
in both conventional and nuclear areas. </b>
The US government and Congress are both seeking to reinforce India's pairing
with Pakistan even as US officials claim to have de-hyphenated the two
countries in US policy. In fact, no sooner had the US initiated the Next Steps
in Strategic Partnership with India in early 2004 than it caught Delhi
unawares by designating Pakistan as a Major Non-Nato Ally.
The nuclear deal threatens to do in the nuclear realm what the US arms
supply to Islamabad has sought to achieve in the conventional military field
erode India's edge. While the US and Pakistani governments have confirmed
that Pakistan is building a second plutonium production reactor at Khushab, Dr
Singh refused to clarify in the Rajya Sabha <b>why he unilaterally agreed to
dismantle by 2010 one of the only two plutonium-production reactors India has</b>.
Pakistan is pleased that the <b>Indo-US deal reduces to less than one-third the
number of Indian facilities available to generate weapons-usable fissile
material.</b> While Dr Singh again claimed that the deal does not adversely
affect Indian nuclear military capability, Mr Joseph R. Biden, the ranking
Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, has said that the deal
imposes qualitative and quantitative ceilings that limit the size and sophistication
of India's nuclear-weapons programme.
In his speech, Dr Singh put the <b>number of reactors being opened to perpetual
international inspections at only 14, when in actual fact he has agreed to
open up 35 nuclear facilities</b>Â and establishments as well as rip down two
research reactors Cirus and Apsara.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->