'Iran ties cannot be a litmus test for N-deal'

Indian Opposition parties on Wednesday warned the United States not to make India's relations with Iran 'a litmus test' for the passage of the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement.

Coverage: Indo-US Nuclear Tango

Speaking at an interactive roundtable session organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the US-India Business Council, head of the visiting Indian parliamentary delegation, B Jay Panda of the Biju Janata Dal said, "It may not always be possible for India to have an identical position on Iran as the US has, because, first of all, we live in that neighborhood, you do not."

"We have a large minority population, we have traditional links," He noted.

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Panda said he believed there was enough maturity in the relationship between India and the US that it can handle divergences of interests in specific issues as long as there is a broad, overall convergence in interests.

"But having said that," he pointed out, "despite the political compulsions that we have today, India has in fact voted in the International Atomic Energy Agency in a manner that is in line with what the US position has been. And, also, I urge you to read between the lines when you hear policy statements."

"India had also made it amply clear that it would not be in favour of another nuclear power in the region," Panda added.

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He argued that it was too early in this rapprochement between India and the US to use Iran as a litmus test. We should put off using Iran or any other issue as a litmus test for several years more as the countries keeping coming closer together.

Another member of the delegation, Manvendra Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party, taking a hefty swipe at the US for at one time courting the Taliban, recalled, "It is a pointer, because you have got to go back to the past to get to the future and I just want to remind you that it was not long ago that while the world was playing ball with the Taliban, it was India and Iran that were keeping the Northern Alliance alive, and if the Northern Alliance had not been alive, then on September 11 and the events after that, Afghanistan would not be a free country."