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Make public Indian entities report’ Democrats write to rice on nuclear deal Leading Democrats have written to US secretary of State Condoleeza Rice urging her to make public a report on all Indian entities and foreign persons involved in the activities related to
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The move comes ahead of the vote in the House of Representatives on a bill seeking to implement the India-US civilian nuclear energy agreement. The letter has been written by the co-chair of the bipartisan task force on non-proliferation Edward Markey along with his colleagues Ellen Tauscher and Barbara Lee who are members of the House Armed Services Committee and the House International Relations Committee.
The letter was in response to reports in Washington that the administration was withholding the report as it would impact adversely on the US Congress vote on the proposed legislation. “It would be absolutely unacceptable if the state department purposefully withheld information relating to Indian entities engaged in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction until after the Congress considers the US-India nuclear agreement,” Mr Markey was quoted by the news agencies as saying.
Ms Barbara Lee, in her remarks, pointed out, “Congress is now considering a bill that would open the door to nuclear cooperation between the US and India. Given the grave concerns about the non-proliferation implications of the India nuclear deal, it is staggering that the State department could be failing to provide Congress with information about illicit transfers of nuclear and chemical weapons related technology and goods from entities located in the State of India.”
The three US legislators pointed out that the US has filed at least eight non-proliferation sanctions against at least seven Indian entities since 2003, of which two sanctions were imposed in December last year. Meanwhile, in what is clearly a renewed offensive against the controversial deal, US nuclear experts, stepping up the campaign against the India US civilian nuclear energy agreement, have sent a letter to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director Mohamed ElBaradei, attacking his decision to support the nuclear
deal between the two countries.
The non-proliferation lobby in the US is clearly of the view that not enough is being done to curtail India’s nuclear programme and Mr ElBaradei has been questioned for his “surprising and disappointing” support for the deal that these experts feel undermines global efforts to stop the spread and build up of nuclear arms.
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