Who will Bharat choose?
Congressmen seek blanket Indian support for US: Nuclear deal with New Delhi
India on Thursday heard from members of the US Congress that there’s a prize tag for nuclear cooperation from Washington which includes supporting US policies across the board, from Iran to Iraq and beyond. “India must decide where it will stand: with the ayatollahs of terror in Tehran or with the United States,” said Tom Lantos, a Democratic Congressman from California, as the House International Relations Committee began hearing the July 18 Indo-US deal that offers civilian nuclear cooperation to India and pledges to make it a “great power”. “It is also important, if India is to assume truly the status of a great power, that it move beyond the confines of South Asia and support efforts to establish stability and democracy elsewhere -– for example, in Iraq,” said Mr Lantos, a pro-Indian lawmaker who not only supports the nuclear deal but said that he also favoured India becoming a full member of the UN Security Council.
Outlining what he expects India to do in return, Mr Lantos said: “That includes supporting our efforts to refer Iran’s 18 years of violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to the UN Security Council. Anything less than full support will imperil the expansion of US nuclear and security cooperation with New Delhi.” Mr Lantos also felt that since signing the July 18 agreement, India has not done what the US had expected it to do. “There is a degree of reciprocity we expect of India which has not been forthcoming. The policy of India towards Iran is a matter of great concern to many of us.” Reminding India that there’s “quid pro quo in international relations,” Congressman Lantos said that it would not be acceptable to the US that “we agree to undertake a tremendous range of path-breaking measures to accommodate India, while India blithely pursues what it sees should be its goal and policy vis-a-vis Iran.” He added: “We have every right to expect that India will reciprocate in taking into account our concerns.” The committee’s chairman Henry Hyde advised the Bush administration to seek guarantees from India to ensure that it would reciprocate the favour it was receiving from the US. “What assumptions are we making regarding the impact of this agreement on India’s perceptions and likely actions?” he asked.