Indo-US nuclear deal

The Indo-US nuclear deal seems to have disappeared from the news in recent weeks. The charitable view to take is that much hard work is being done behind the scenes to work out a deal that would satisfy both sides. But could it be that, in some matters, the gap is unbridgeable?

Today's Business Standard has an edit that suggests that on two issues, the gap is pretty wide. One is the issue of reprocessing spent fuel- the US wants such fuel to be returned to preclude its being used for bombs. India would like to keep the fuel. Another is stockpiling of fuel for civilian nuclear plants. The paper feels that too much energy is being invested in the deal and that Indo-US cooperation can flourish even without it.

Maybe. But there's one other issue the edit overlooks- Iran. American plans for regime change (and about this there should be no doubt) cannot possibly have India's support. A big irritant at the moment is the Indo-Pak-Iran gas pipeline. The US Energy secretary recently made it clear that the US could not countenance the construction of such a pipeline at a time when the US was tightening the squeeze on the Iranian regime.

However, on NDTV yesterday, India's foreign minister, Pranab Mukerjee, said categorically that the pipeline is on. I liked the steely determination on Mukerjee's face when he made that statement. If the Indian government sticks to that position, we can forget about the Indo-US nuclear deal going through- unless the US puts in motion its plans for regime change in Iran in the near future.