Ms. Khalid’s column gives the impression that the United States is suddenly reversing years of foreign policy and rewarding an undeserving country. This is not true. Change in U.S.-India relations is a gradual process that began a decade ago, under a different administration, and still continues. The nuclear accord does not harm the Non-proliferation treaty, simply because the NPT died the day nuclear technology was proliferated to Pakistan and then to Iran, Libya and North Korea, all NPT signatories. In the three decades that it possessed nuclear technology, India has followed the letter and spirit of the NPT far better than many of its signatories.
The bogey of an arms race is simply propaganda aimed at achieving hyphenation between India and Pakistan, which the United States has come to realize, is no longer valid. The administration reached this agreement because it saw the obvious benefits of supporting the growing Indian economy and of improving relations with a democratic powerhouse. The columnist should clarify how the United States is being hypocritical in denying nuclear technology to fundamentalist, terrorism-supporting Middle East dictatorships while selling it to a democratic, secular and responsible power like India.
Avinash DharneGraduate student