Indian opposition parties trash nuclear deal even as senior US Rep hails it

10 October 2008

Washington: With India and the US set to formalise the civilian nuclear deal later today at a signing ceremony, a senior Republican lawmaker has said that the agreement will forge closer ties between the world's largest democracies. Her positive sentiments came in sharp contrast to the trashing of the deal by Indian opposition political parties.

"Stronger economic, scientific, diplomatic, and military cooperation between the US and India is in the national interest of both countries and reflects our increasingly close relationship with this important democratic ally," ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said.

"This is not an agreement which we would enter into with just any country," she said in a statement.

Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee will sign the agreement at the State Department at 4 PM local time on Friday evening (1:30 AM on Saturday morning IST), it has been officially announced.

Opposition trashes deal

Meanwhile, the much awaited US presidential signing statement has left Indian opposition parties undeterred, with both Left and Right wing parties trashing the agreement. Their comments come even as the country edges ever closer to parliamentary polls with the five-year life-span of the existing parliament expiring sometime in March 2009.