India Post News Service

NEW YORK: "It's no news that they survived the Trust Vote," is a suitably vexed reaction from New York-based Rajiv Khanna, President of the India-America Chamber of Commerce, to the victory of the UPA-led government in India that faced a confidence motion in Parliament last week. "It would've been news if they didn't." Not all Indian Americans may share Khanna's candor with regard to the fickle moves of India's political parties, but many among them expressed distress at the blatant display of corruption among some Indian Parliamentarians over the past few weeks as they 'bought' or 'sold' loyalties in order to share power at the Center.

Significant though, is the huge sigh of relief among Indian American community leaders who lobbied hard with American lawmakers to push the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal through the US Congress, that there would be no further obstacles to the deal on the Indian side. To recap briefly, the UPA-led Indian government faced a collapse when its coalition partner, the Left Front, withdrew its support to the government because of disagreements over the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement. Since the withdrawal of the Left support, the Congress Party, which is the mainstay of the UPA, has scouted and managed to gather enough support from MPs belonging to various parties in order to prove its majority in Parliament.

Following two days of high strung debating in Parliament, the UPA emerged victorious with 275 MPs under its wings. With the main Opposition BJP and the Left Front silenced for now, there is eager anticipation that the civilian nuclear agreement will sail through to the next level. While India has already approached the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and is awaiting approval, it can now also approach the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) to operationalize the nuclear deal. Khanna, however, wishes that at a political level, there had been greater transparency into the whole nuclear deal process in India.

"The way it was handled was flawed from the beginning," he says. "If the deal was so good for India why the Indian government didn't make any attempt to let the Opposition parties participate in the process? Even lay people In India are still unable to decide whether the nuclear deal with the US is good or bad for the country." In a democracy, Khanna told India Post, there needs to be a little more sophistication in dealing with such sensitive issues. And as for the business community, he says, "They have moved beyond political upheavals.

I don't think anyone expected the government to fall on this issue." Echoing on that point is Sanjay Puri, President of the US-India Political Action Committee (USINPAC), which was at the forefront of the lobbying efforts in the US. "Nobody wants elections at this point," he told India Post. Puri rationalizes the dramatic twists in the Indian Parliament as being part of a democratic process. "India is a Parliamentary system and one has to respect that. The Left Front has expressed its views, but ultimately majority has to prevail, and it has."

India's economic image, however, is not driven by the country's political leaders, feels Puri. "When it comes to trade it's primarily driven by entrepreneurs, and they don't stop for governments." With Left out of the government now, Puri feels the stranglehold on public sector privatization is gone. "There will definitely be other political compulsions, but we can hope for further economic reforms." In any case, nothing spectacular can be expected on the reform front at this juncture because, as Puri says, "Although the government has won the Trust Vote, they are all in campaign mode now for the next general elections." New Jersey-based Rajesh Shukla, an Overseas BJP leader, says he never had any doubt that the deal will go through in the Indian parliament.

"The Manmohan Singh government had already decided on it and it was going to go through anyway," he says. What bothers Shukla is the way the issue played out in the Indian Parliament where members made a mockery of democracy by openly showing bribe money allegedly given to support the government in the Trust Vote. "It's a sad situation and portrays India in a bad light," he says. "I do not know why people vote for them in the first place. How long can this go on?" Shukla too feels that the UPA government mishandled the entire nuclear deal issue by not taking the main Opposition party, the BJP into confidence.

"Unlike the Left Front, the BJP was never against the US or the nuclear deal. All this could've been avoided if the government had made it a bi-partisan issue," he adds. The deal itself is now on auto-pilot and will go through anyway, only it could have been handled better by the Indian government, Shukla feels. Jackson, Mississippi-based Dr. Sampat Shivangi, who is a Delegate at the forthcoming Republican National Convention, says, "It is not in the day-to-day politics we are interested in but at the larger cause of India which was at our heart when entire Indian American community batted for the US-India Civil Nuclear Treaty.

The vote of confidence was in the sanity of this treaty which would bring enormous energy and prosperity to India." Shivangi further says that the energy needs of India cannot be met just by one treaty but that this was a right and first step. "Nobody is saying that the treaty is flawless and perfect but this is only a beginning and things could be worked out," he continued. "This is the best time to start that process before President Bush, who is one of the architects of this treaty, leaves office. We must thank the Congress and untiring efforts of so many Indian Americans who have worked hard to make this happen." With very few calendar days left, the nuke deal bill would have to make a miraculous passage through the current Congress.

"We are giving it our best shot knowing that it's a very, very tight calendar," Puri said. "We are talking to members and the Speaker too to accommodate the bill ratifying the deal before members leave for their respective constituencies for campaigning for elections." Interestingly, this November, along with the Presidential election, 235 members of the House of Representatives and nearly one-third of the Senate face re-election. "We will rally the Indian-American community and engage all like-minded allies to ensure this deal gets included in the US Congressional calendar for this year. We look forward to the day that this important milestone in US-India relations is finalized," he said.