| Lobbying begins for the last lap of nuclear deal | |
| Bs Reporter / New Delhi September 8, 2008, 0:20 IST | |
Moves to waive 30-day cut-off for Congress vote.
Non-resident Indians (NRIs) have plunged in to steer the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement through the choppy waters of American election politics.
Work has already begun in Capitol Hill to make strategies to petition Democrat politicians (the Democrats now have a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate) to get the Rules Committee to overlook the 30-day period mandatory for all legislation to be voted.
Like the Indian Business Advisory Committee, it is the Rules Committee that decides the timing of a piece of legislation that has to come up for voting. The difference is, unlike the Indian system, it is usually an individual who tells the Rules Committee to use its powers of a Special Waiver to circumvent the 30-day rule.
Congress is meeting from September 8 and will be in session till September 26. The last three or four days of Congress are usually set aside for routine work.
This effectively gives the US Administration, Indian lobby groups and government around 14 days to ensure the amendments to Article 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act are carried out via an "up and down" vote (meaning, a yes or no vote, no amendments can be made).
US elections could play a big role. It is well known that in the perception of the Democrats, the US has given in much more than India in pushing the agreement in its present form. Presidential candidate Barack Obama is said to have told advisors that he would much rather have the Bush Administration close the deal than have to do it himself if he comes to power.
But there is also no doubt that whichever group pushes the deal is likely to get accolades from voters of Indian origin.
Analysts say rather than hand over the credit of clinching the deal in Congress to the Republicans, the Democrats might stick a gun at the head of the Republicans and say that while they will support the passage of the deal, this would be conditional on actually signing it only after the new president is in the White House after January 20.
Policymakers say the chances are it will be cleared by Congress on September 23, around the time Manmohan Singh is in Washington to address the United Nations General Assembly and hold a bilateral meeting with President George Bush.
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