India-US nuclear deal runs into troubled waters

By Simon Denyer

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A landmark nuclear cooperation deal
between India and the United States has run into serious
trouble, with Washington playing hard ball and India’s atomic
energy establishment raising objections to the terms of the
deal.

Now Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has a tough choice
to make — override his own scientific establishment or suffer
a serious loss of face when President George W. Bush visits his
country in early March.

“The government is debating this very seriously,” said
foreign policy expert C. Raja Mohan. “Some big decisions have
to be taken.”

The deal, agreed in principle when Singh visited Washington
last July, would offer India access to nuclear technology and
reactors — at a stroke removing much of the stigma India
attracted when it conducted nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998.

In return, New Delhi offered to separate its civilian and
military nuclear programs — and place the civilian part under
international supervision.

But that is where the deal could come unstuck.

The U.S. administration, under pressure from a hesitant
Congress, wants to see more of India’s program under
international supervision than New Delhi is offering.

At the heart of the debate is a prototype Fast Breeder
program, which would process plutonium from spent fuel from
India’s existing Heavy Water reactors.

The chief of India’s Department of Atomic Energy Anil
Kakodkar went public with his objections in a newspaper
interview published in full on Wednesday. Placing the Fast
Breeder under international supervision would “shackle” his
scientists and leave the country dependent on imported uranium,
he said.

“Both from the point of view of maintaining long-term
energy security and for maintaining the ‘minimum credible
deterrent’, the Fast Breeder program just cannot be put on the
civilian list,” he said. “This is not in our strategic
interest.”

TURF BATTLE

Nonsense say the deal’s supporters. DAE, long a secretive
and isolationist organization, is simply scared of opening up,
ignoring long-term strategic goals for its own narrow
interests.

“There is a very strong turf battle going on,” said Dr
Harsh V. Pant, a lecturer in defense studies at King’s College,
London. “The scientific establishment wants to defend its
turf.”

Singh, already under fire from his Communist allies over
the deal, has promised to address parliament later this month
about the deal. Promising to defend India’s national interest,
he vowed there was “no question of bending” to American
demands.

U.S. officials are hoping to reach a deal before Bush’s
visit. But in a January 26 interview with Reuters, Secretary of
State Condoleeza Rice said India had to make some “difficult
choices.”

In New Delhi, the foreign ministry is keen to push the deal
through, but says Washington is a playing tough. “It’s coming
down to hard-nosed political bargaining,” said one official.

India’s civilian and military nuclear programs are
completely entwined. New Delhi had proposed a phased
separation, Washington wants it done in one go, he said.

“That is, of course, not impossible but it will take us
time and preparation if we agree to do it. And we only have
three weeks before the Bush visit — that may not be
sufficient.” (Additional reporting by Y.P. Rajesh)