Click to play videoNew Delhi: Things looked positive for the Indo-US nuclear deal after a Democratic Congressman dropped killer amendments to the agreement shortly before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets US President George W Bush.
Howard Berman, a critic of the nuclear deal and chairperson of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, introduced a Bill different from the one presented by Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros Lehtinen and approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday.
Berman urged Democrats not to support bill and his proposals included economic sanctions on Iran—something unacceptable to India.
After a lot of persuasion, Berman tabled a Bill that is identical to measures approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and which carried a rider that all nuclear cooperation with India would cease in the event of New Delhi carrying out a nuclear test.
Republican Congressman Joe Wilson told CNN-IBN the Bill presented by the majority party would be voted upon.
David Mulford, US Ambassador to India, refused to comment whether the agreement would be passed before September 26, the last day of the US Congress session.
"I can't predict when the 123 agreement would be cleared by the Congress," he told reporters but went on to add, "It is not impossible that the deal will get ratified by the end of the current session," he said.
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