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OO RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHLH RUEHPW
DE RUEHNE #1026/01 1001112
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O 091112Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1278
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUCNNSG/NUCLEAR SUPPLIERS GROUP COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 1451
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 6277

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NEW DELHI 001026 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PARM TSPL KNNP ETTC ENRG TRGY IN
SUBJECT: NEW PRO-DEAL VOICES EMERGE IN NUCLEAR LULL 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Despite the lack of forward movement on the 
U.S.-India civil nuclear cooperation initiative in recent 
weeks, political, business and religious proponents have 
emerged in India, revealing that the issue remains alive. 
Previously quiet Congress Party politicians have spoken in 
favor of the initiative, including in villages and state 
assemblies.  Businesses have also stepped up, with the Delhi 
Cloth Mills Chairman drafting a six-page pro-deal tract and 
the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India 
(Assocham) holding a "brainstorming" session April 8 that 
gathered mostly nuclear advocates from the business and 
political communities.  The Assocham meeting also set the 
stage for the All India Organization of Imams of Mosques 
General Secretary to make public his group's endorsement. 
While the Congress Party may have mobilized some of these 
backers, their continued support can only help buttress the 
UPA government's uphill battle to keep the nuclear deal 
alive.  End Summary. 
 
Congress Politicians Continue to Support the Deal 
- - - 
 
¶2. (SBU) While observers wait for the next UPA-Left committee 
meeting in late April and the budget vote in early May, 
politicians have continued to express support for completing 
the civil nuclear initiative.  Two Congress Party Members of 
Parliament (MP), Nikhil Kumar of the Lok Sabha (lower house) 
and Satyavrat Chaturvedi of the Rajya Sabha (upper house), 
added their voices during an April 8 "brainstorming" session 
sponsored by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry 
of India (Assocham) in Delhi.  After going through a more 
technical defense of the Hyde Act and 123 Agreement, 
Chaturvedi attacked the claim made by Communist Party of 
India (CPI) National Secretary D. Raja, whom Assocham invited 
to balance the discussion, that the nuclear initiative will 
compel India to lose its independent foreign policy.  "When 
Nehru decided that India should become a member of the 
Commonwealth, people called it a 'back door for Britishers' 
and said that the Union Jack would be waving from rooftops 
everywhere in India," he recalled.  He recounted that India 
retained the right not to endorse the Soviet invasion of 
Afghanistan despite the India-USSR Friendship Treaty 
concluded by Indira Gandhi.  "Indian leadership has stood the 
test of time," he stated. 
 
¶3. (SBU) BJP Member of the Delhi Legislative Assembly Vijay 
Jolly also exhorted support for the nuclear initiative. 
Although he conditioned his remarks as those of a "private 
citizen," he assailed the "non-seriousness" of the UPA 
government.  He claimed that, contrary to its stated position 
in Parliament, the BJP would not renegotiate the deal if it 
comes to power after the next general elections.  "The 
misconceptions regarding the deal have been spread by those 
who do not want India to emerge as a global power," he 
maintained.  Also straying from the BJP line, former 
President A.P.J. Kalam, a BJP appointee, went on record March 
31 in support of the nuclear initiative.  "The deal is 
important to meet the nation's energy needs," he told 
reporters. 
 
Nuclear Issue Goes Local 
- - - 
 
¶4. (SBU) Also speaking at the Assocham gathering, Congress MP 
Nikhil Kumar reported that his constituents in rural southern 
Bihar have unexpectedly asked him about progress on the 
nuclear initiative.  "People say that villagers don't know 
the nuclear deal, but in my backward area, they know what 
this deal is all about," he related.  He noted that the 
vernacular media has informed his constituents, "who asked me 
questions, and I was stunned -- I didn't realize they had so 
much knowledge."  Concerned about the lack of electricity, 
his voters have demanded how much energy they would gain when 
the nuclear initiative comes through, to which Kumar responds 
that the Eleventh Plan provides for nuclear reactors in 
Bihar.  "They are fed up with living in a society in which 
they have to depend on stealing power or relying on pumps 
that don't work half the time." 
 
¶5. (SBU) The nuclear initiative also arose in the Tamil Nadu 
Assembly, during an April 3 debate about electricity grants. 
According to news reports, Congress MLA M.K. Vishnu Prasad 
said that despite the current "hue and cry" about the nuclear 
 
NEW DELHI 00001026  002 OF 002 
 
 
deal now, "even those opposed to it will accept it one day as 
a necessity."  He accused the Left of having an "allergy 
towards the U.S." which has obstructed future technology 
transfers.  Fellow Congress MLA D. Sudarshanam noted that 
even China had sealed a 123 Agreement with the U.S.  CPI and 
Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) MLAs dismissed the 
usefulness of the nuclear deal, and claimed that the 
U.S.-China deal had less conditions regarding China's foreign 
policy than the U.S.-India agreement. 
 
Imams for Nukes 
- - - 
 
¶6. (SBU) The Assocham gathering also provided the venue for 
the All India Organization of Imams of Mosques, which claims 
to represent half a million imams in India, to issue its 
support of the nuclear initiative.  General Secretary Imam 
Umer Ahmed Ilyasi read a statement, later released to the 
press, that declared that "history has given us a chance and 
we must seize it.  If international fuel is available, the 
cost of producing electricity will be reduced and will be in 
the affordable range."  Ilyasi also pointed out that the 
nuclear initiative will help India emerge as a nuclear power 
and produce "optimum pressure on our neighboring country," 
which could help ease regional tension. 
 
Business Also Joins Nuclear Bandwagon 
- - - 
 
¶7. (SBU) The Assocham discussion, spurred by the release of a 
study titled "Liberating India from Technology Denial 
Regime," also marked greater involvement by India's business 
community in efforts to push the initiative forward.  After 
refuting criticism about the Hyde Act and 123 Agreement, the 
study concludes: "What is at stake is not only nuclear 
energy, although that in itself is important.  The Indo-U.S. 
nuclear agreement is about a much larger repositioning of 
India and it is particularly in the interest of Indian 
corporates to support an initiative that would expand their 
global opportunities."  Assocham Chairman Venugopal Dhoot, 
who is also Videocon Industries Chairman, explained that 
India "needs to have good relations with the U.S. in order to 
achieve 9-10 percent growth rate in the next decade." 
 
¶8. (SBU) Assocham's efforts followed the individual 
initiative taken by industrialist Vinay Bharat Ram, Chairman 
of Delhi Cloths Mill Ltd, who released March 8 his own glossy 
six-page pamphlet titled, "Don't Let the Deal Die."  Cited by 
Hindustan Times columnist and eminent commentator Khushwant 
Singh in his own April 5 defense of the nuclear initiative, 
Ram's tract advises the Congress Party to take the nuclear 
deal to the villagers.  "Energy for each village is in sync 
with the familiar slogan of bijli (electricity), pani 
(water), and sadak (roads).  Further, energy is the driving 
force for all three objectives.  The message needs to be 
propagated that the purpose of this deal is to bring these 
benefits to every village." 
 
Comment: Nuclear Issue Staggers On 
- - - 
 
¶9. (SBU) While the nuclear debate in India has quieted, the 
emergence of new proponents, spread vertically from local to 
national politics, and horizontally through the religious, 
business and political communities, has kept the issue alive 
during the current period of government inactivity.  The 
Congress Party may have orchestrated some of the pro-deal 
commentary, but some, particularly the anecdotal reports of 
local politics, has likely grown out of the constant and 
unavoidable media coverage.  These new voices have given 
added weight to the opinion pieces still published regularly 
by commentators such as K. Subrahmanyam and Raja Mohan. 
While the simmering debate cannot thwart the Left's 
persistent anti-Americanism or sway the BJP's cynical 
skeptics on its own, it could buttress the Congress Party's 
efforts to defang the critics and advance the initiative 
without bringing the government down. 
DEIKUN