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Many in India not happy with U.S-India Nuclear Deal

The wages of the nuclear deal The N-deal has turned out to be what the US mandated, not what the Prime Minister had assured India, livemint.com, Brahma Chellaney, 15 Aug 2010,  “…. the final deal ends up giving the US specific rights—enforceable through the pain of unilateral suspension or termination of cooperation—while saddling India with obligations. The NCANEA actually records that the promise of uninterrupted fuel supply is a “political”, not legal, commitment. It cannot be anything else because the 123 Agreement itself confers an open-ended right on the US to suspend fuel supplies straight away while issuing a one-year termination notice. In fact, as a corollary to that right, the US has retained the prerogative in the reprocessing accord to unilaterally suspend its reprocessing consent to India.
What stands out about the final deal are the four “Nos” for India: No binding fuel-supply guarantee to avert a Tarapur-style fuel cut-off; no irrevocable reprocessing consent; no right to withdraw from its obligations; and no right to conduct a nuclear test ever again. The no-test obligation constitutes the first instance in the nuclear age where one nuclear-weapons power has used a civilian cooperation deal to impose such a prohibition on another nuclear-weapons state…..
A closer relationship with the US is in India’s own interest. But it could have been built without a deal that carries serious, long-term costs. Indeed, such are the wages of the deal that India has refrained from speaking up on regional-security issues that directly impinge on its interests, including the continuing transfer of offensive US weapon systems to Pakistan, now the largest recipient of the US economic and military aid in the world. Islamabad, in fact, has managed to cut its own deal to buy two China-origin reactors without the burden of conditions cast on India…….

The wages of the nuclear deal – Views – livemint.com

August 17, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | India, politics international | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons