India

How humiliating, said New

Delhi’s Times of India in an editorial.

India’s landmark nuclear deal

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with the United States has been

put on hold because of opposition

from our overly influential

Communist parties. The deal,

struck in 2006 between the Bush

administration and Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh, is “transparently

in India’s interest.” It would

give us the right to import nuclear

fuel and technology, privileges

we have been denied for 30 years

because we tested nuclear weapons

and refused to sign the Nuclear

Non-Proliferation Treaty. In

return, this country would merely

have to allow international inspections

of our civilian nuclear power

plants. But before the deal can be

implemented, it must be approved

by India’s parliament—and that’s

where the leftists hold the cards.

The Communists threatened to

pull out of Singh’s governing coalition

if he forced a vote on the

nuclear deal, so he backed down.

The sudden turnaround is “a blow

to India’s global aspirations and a

diminution of its international stature.”

Everyone knows the nuclear deal would

be great for India, said Vir Sanghvi in the

New Delhi Hindustan Times. Even the

Communists must know that. But they

simply can’t bring themselves to endorse

any new policy that brings India closer to

the United States. “The Communist parties

have never forgiven the U.S. for winning

the Cold War” and depriving them of their

Soviet backing. And let’s not forget that

the various Communist factions all have

close ties with China, which has its own

reasons for wanting to curb U.S. influence

in Asia.

Actually, China is the reason the

deal will ultimately go through,

said Harsh V. Pant in the New

Delhi Outlook India. Military

analysts say India and the U.S.

both know they need to cooperate

to counter an increasingly

powerful and belligerent China.

The civilian nuclear power deal,

which implicitly accepts that India

is a nuclear weapons state, is

the logical place to start. Indian

Communists needn’t worry.

“There is little incentive for the

U.S. to try to cap the Indian

nuclear arsenal and circumscribe

Indian technology development,

as some in India have alleged.”

Instead, it is in the American

interest to help develop democratic

India as a counterweight to

authoritarian China. And since

the deal is in both American and

Indian interests, it will eventually

happen—regardless of what the

Communists say.

Still, for now, the Communists

have won a key victory, said

Karnataka’s Deccan Herald.

Prime Minister Singh could have avoided

his public embarrassment if he had been

a bit more careful to gauge the mood in

his coalition before scheduling a vote on

the nuclear deal. As it is, the leftists will

only be “more assertive and aggressive” in

their anti-U.S. policies, now that they have

forced the government “to blink.”