NEW DELHI, 10 November 2006 — Despite Democrats’ victory in the US Congressional polls, the prospects of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal being passed in the “lame duck” session of Senate next week look strong, according to the American envoy here.
“There is widespread bipartisan support for the Indo-US relations in general and the nuclear deal in particular. The Senate intends to address the issue in the ‘lame duck’ session...the prognosis is very good and there is consensus between Republicans and Democrats. It is a positive situation,” US ambassador to India David C. Mulford said yesterday.
While admitting that it was difficult to predict what would happen in the “lame duck” session, Mulford said that even if there was delay, the administration as well as the Congress remained committed to the bill.
Acknowledging that if the nuclear bill fails to win the Senate vote this year, the whole Congressional process will have to start all over again when the new Congress meets next year, Mulford said: “Chances are quite favorable... The bill could be voted out next Wednesday and Thursday.”
If the Senate clears the bill, its version of the bill and that of the House would be reconciled through a conference. Before the bill goes to the White House for presidential signature, its final version will have to be passed again by both houses of US Congress.
On this, Mulford said: “It is purely a question of parliamentary procedures. The number of amendments to the Senate draft of the bill has narrowed down. And there is a strong bipartisan consensus with the prevalent view being that let’s get on with it.”
With leading Democrats like Joe Biden and Tom Lantos having spoken favorably after Tuesday’s midterm congressional elections, Mulford said: “In the last two days, there has been a strong expression of bipartisan consensus in favor of the nuclear bill.”
Pointing to the three priorities indicated by President George W. Bush — the deal with India, the deal with Vietnam and budgetary proposals, Mulford said, “The civilian nuclear bill is a well-defined bill, capable of being acted upon in a short time.”
The future of Indo-US civil nuclear deal is expected to dominate discussions between the visiting US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher and Indian officials.
Meanwhile, in Washington, Bush has clearly signaled that he remains as serious as ever about the nuclear deal.
“I am trying to get the India bill done,” he said on Wednesday. Sen. Joe Biden, a top Democrat on Senate foreign relations panel, expects the bill to “pass with a very large vote.”
In his opinion, it would take “at least a day’s worth of debate, no more than two” to settle the bill in the Senate. But it was up to the Senate’s Republican leader Bill Frist on bringing it up for consideration in the “lame duck” session of the Congress, Biden said.
Senate Democratic party leader Harry Reid said that Democrats are in favor of the bill being taken up in the “lame duck” session. He said: “India is the largest democracy in the world. We want to work with them, and it is important we move along the lines.”
