Fly in the Indian Ointment

The India-America nuclear deal was signed by President Bush yesterday, but there's a fly in the ointment -- a Congressional provision requiring the president to make annual reports to Congress on India’s ties with Iran’s nuclear program.

Not surprisingly, that has royally annoyed India, and Manmohan Singh has put his foot down on the whole thing. Note the headline in the Financial Express: "We will not give up our nuclear swaraj, says Manmohan." Roughly translated from the Hindi, "swaraj" means "self-rule."

I really wonder whether Singh believes that. The congressional concern is totally reasonable. Posturing like that helps no one, except maybe Iran, and hurts U.S.-India relations.

© 2006 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

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