No ignoring Hyde Act: US

BY RAMESH RAMACHANDRAN

NEW DELHI

Aug. 7: "The Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006" came back to haunt India on a day when the national security advisory board met here to discuss certain specific agenda.

The US state department has iterated "anything that we proceed with will be consistent with US law".

The clarification came a day after Howard Berman, a Democrat and chairman of US House foreign affairs committee, warned that an NSG waiver that is "inconsistent" with the Hyde Act will "jeopardise" the deal in the US Congress. The Hyde Act says nuclear cooperation with India must cease if it conducts a nuclear test.

If certain minimum conditions are not attached to the NSG waiver, then the Bush administration should not push the nuclear deal in a hurry, Mr Berman wrote to US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

Non-proliferation enthusiasts like Leonor Tomero and Kingston Reif from the US-based Centre For Arms Control And Non-Proliferation have said a "clean" exemption for India in the NSG will violate the clear intent of the Hyde Act. Compounding matters for India, Austria has said IAEA’s approval should not "prejudice" the decision to be taken by NSG. Other members like Ireland, Norway and New Zealand too have hinted their support should not be taken for granted.

For its part, New Delhi has said it is not bound by the Hyde Act. "[We] will move ahead only if in our view the NSG waiver is clean and unconditional," a source said.