US lawmakers stress on August timeline for N-deal

“The Congress is an ongoing entity. We have a calender. The calender is running quickly,” he told reporters after meeting Saran and Menon during which he and other five members of the delegation were briefed about New Delhi’s efforts to implement the deal at the earliest.

He said the Congress will break for session in September and it will meet again after the US Presidential poll process, while making it clear that the deal would have to be taken up during the next administration if India fails to firm up a Safeguards Agreement with IAEA and get waiver from 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) by August.

“We had been hopeful that the processes would move quickly… (but) the processes have moved slower than we had hoped because of obvious reasons,” said Ackerman, who heads the House Foreign Relations Sub-Committee on South Asia.

He noted that the ‘visionary’ deal was going through political processes here but refused to comment on it, saying he had no right to “infringe on the sovereign” process.

As per the Indo-US nuclear deal, India has to firm up Safeguards Agreement with IAEA and get a waiver from NSG before the agreement is put to ‘up and down vote’ in the US Congress, necessary for implementation of the agreement.

India has finalised the safeguards agreement with IAEA but is unable to sign it because of stiff opposition from Left parties, which are extending crucial outside support.

The government is involved in efforts to end the logjam and move ahead by signing the agreement with IAEA.

Asked whether he felt the deal could be implemented during Bush administration’s tenure, Ackerman said it would depend on whether the Indian government has the deal ready in time.

“If they do it on time, we will be prepared,” he said. “I do not know if India will be ready by September” and if New Delhi is not ready, the matter cannot be put on the agenda of the Congress during the remaining calender, he said.

Asked whether it was late now, he quipped “it is never late till it is late”.

“India has the first bite of the apple. India has the first right to deny,” he said.

Ackerman, who has been a pro-India Congressman, noted that the deal has bipartisan support in the US Congress and even the Left there wants the agreement to ‘happen’.

He, however, emphasised that the fate of the nuclear deal will have no impact on the bilateral relations and the US would continue to be friends with India.

The delegation is also expected to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and some political leaders during their two-day stay here ending on Friday.