N-deal failure will create doubts in next administration: Washington Post

With uncertainty over the Indo-US nuclear deal continuing, an influential newspaper in Washington has warned that the failure of India to seal the accord will force the next administration to think twice before trying anything like it.

In its editorial, 'Can India say Yes?: New Delhi Comes to a Cross Roads over Nuclear Cooperation with the United States', The Washington Post has praised India's vibrant democracy where the people's elected representatives across the spectrum have a right to be heard and to influence policy.

'But if New Delhi's politicians cannot find a way to say 'yes' to such a clearly advantageous agreement with a natural ally, the next US administration, no doubt, will think twice before trying anything like it,' the leading US daily warned.

It said even as the ruling Congress party and the Communists are scheduled to meet on Tuesday for one last round of negotiation, but prospects for an agreement are bleak.

'And there might not be time to get the accord through this US Congress, even if the Communists unexpectedly back down -- or if Mr Singh decides that sticking to the deal is worth the risks of a new election, as some recent reports from New Delhi suggest he will,' The Post warned.

'The problem is that India's old-style domestic politics lags behind its new international opportunities,' it said.

The Post, like many other sceptics, have long warned India that if the opportunity of sealing this deal in the Bush administration is lost the incoming administration, especially a Democratic one, will not be too eager to go along with what has been agreed to. And privately there has been the argument that irrespective of the administration coming in on January 20, 2009, the priorities are going to be different in the first term -- tackling the economic woes and getting out of Iraq.

The American daily makes the argument that India and the United States share political values and strategic priorities such as blunting the military power of China and resisting Islamist terrorism and these were the considerations that led the current Bush administration to pursue a "strategic partnership", the heart of which was the civilian nuclear deal.

'Why, then, is India balking at the deal, the final contours of which were settled almost a year ago? If anything, the accord is stacked in India's favour,' The Post says in its lead editorial, making the point that the accord allows India not only to buy uranium and nuclear reactors from the United States but also to reprocess spent atomic fuel at a new facility, under International Atomic Energy Agency supervision.

It says Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, understanding both the boost in international prestige the arrangement would give India and the reduction in carbon emissions that his country could achieve from using more nuclear energy, 'has all but staked his government on implementation' of the nuclear deal.