NOTHIN' SAYS LOVIN' LIKE SOMETHING IN A NUCLEAR OVEN

India on Friday cautiously welcomed the US Senate's approval to President George W Bush's plan for nuclear cooperation between the two countries that would allow the United States to send nuclear technology and fuel to India.

In a calibrated response to the Senate's approval, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi separately told delegates at the HT Leadership Summit that Delhi welcomed the step forward but suggested that it was still too early to celebrate. "We are still a long way to go before nuclear cooperation between India and United States becomes a living reality," Singh said, noting that there were aspects in the two bills that were "not identical". Singh stressed that the final version of the deal should be in line with "mutual commitments" made in last year's agreement, a point that Congress president Sonia Gandhi too had articulated during a Q&A session at the Summit earlier in the day.

Last ditch opposition to the India-US civil nuclear cooperation deal was overwhelmingly rejected, with the US Senate voting 85-12 on Thursday in favour of ending the atomic apartheid against India. Tellingly, each of the six “killer” amendments proposed to the bill, which Delhi had said would compel it to reject the nuclear deal, was easily defeated.

Senator Joe Biden, Democratic co-sponsor of the bill, stressed that the deal was part of the trend begun by former president Bill Clinton and accelerated by Bush. “When we pass this bill, America will be a giant step closer to approving a major shift in US-Indian relations.