Nuclear Thread - 3

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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> <b> 'India is bound by Hyde Act and 123' </b>
Pioneer.com
Shobori Ganguli | New Delhi
Boucher remarks fly in the face of Govt's claim
Despite External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's attempts to delink the Hyde Act from the India-US 123 Agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation, the United States on Tuesday made it apparent that the latter is not independent of the Act. Visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asian Affairs Richard Boucher, following talks with Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon here said, "The Hyde Act is a domestic legislation (and) the 123 Agreement is an international agreement. I think we can move forward with both in a consistent manner."   

While the BJP and the Left have consistently raised concerns over the impact of the Hyde Act on the bilateral nuclear engagement, the UPA Government has striven hard to maintain that America's domestic legislation will have no impact on the deal. On Monday, Mukherjee told Parliament that "the Hyde Act is an enabling provision that is between the executive and the legislative organs of the US Government," that "India's rights and obligations regarding civil nuclear cooperation with the US arise only from the bilateral 123 Agreement that we have agreed upon with the US."
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