Page 264 - Failure to Triumph - Journey of A Student

On March 2, 2006 in New Delhi, George W Bush and Manmohan Singh signed a Civil Nuclear
Cooperation Agreement, following an initiation during the July 2005 summit in Washington between
the two leaders over civilian nuclear cooperation.

Heavily endorsed by the White House, the agreement is thought to be a major victory to George W
Bush’s foreign policy initiative and was described by many law makers as a cornerstone of the new

strategic partnership between the two countries. The agreement is widely considered to help India
fulfill its soaring energy demands and boost US and India into a strategic partnership. The Pentagon
speculates this will help ease global demand for crude oil and natural gas.

On August 3, 2007, both the countries released the full text of the 123 Agreement. Nicholas Burns,
the chief negotiator of the India-United States nuclear deal, said the US has the right to terminate the
deal if India tests a nuclear weapon and that no part of the agreement recognizes India as a nuclear
weapons state.

Hyde Act Passage in the US

On December 18, 2006 President George W Bush signed the Hyde Act into law. The Act was passed
by an overwhelming 359-68 in the United States House of Representatives on July 26 and by 85-12 in
the United States Senate on November 16 in a strong show of bipartisan support.

The House version (H.R. 5682) and Senate version (S. 3709) of the bill differed due to
amendments each had added before approving, but the versions were reconciled with a House vote of
330-59 on December 8 and a Senate voice-vote on December 9 before being passed on to President

G W Bush for final approval. The White House had urged Congress to expedite the reconciliation
process during the end-2006 lame duck session, and recommended removing certain amendments
which would be deemed deal-killers by India. Nonetheless, while softened, several clauses
restricting India’s strategic nuclear program and conditions on having India align with US views over
Iran were incorporated in the Hyde Act.

In response to the language Congress used in the Act to define US policy toward India, President
Bush, stated: “Given the Constitution’s commitment to the authority of the presidency to conduct the
nation’s foreign affairs, the executive branch shall construe such policy statements as advisory," going

on to cite sections 103 and 104 (d) (2) of the bill. To assure Congress that its work would not be
totally discarded, Bush continued by saying that the executive would give “the due weight that comity
between the legislative and executive branches should require, to the extent consistent with US
foreign policy."

Political Opposition in India

The Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement was met with stiff opposition by some political parties and

activists in India. Although many mainstream political parties including the Congress(I) supported the
deal along with regional parties like Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Rashtriya Janata Dal its
realization ran into difficulties in the face of stiff political opposition in India. Also, in November