Even as American visitors to New Delhi urged the Indian government to move fast on the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement, former UN Under-Secretary General Shashi Tharoor warned that if the deal didnt get done, India would have no FACE to show in the international arena.
US treasury secretary Henry Paulson urged India to expedite it through the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 'India's democratic processes needs to continue. It is important to get it (the nuclear deal) implemented as soon as possible. It is a positive if India moves forward on the deal. Let the process in India work. Let them come to their own conclusion. I am an optimist. I believe good ideas get done,' Paulson told business leaders at the Fortune Global Forum.
However, the USs most famous diplomat, Henry Kissinger, said there was hope for the nuclear deal even if the present US administration failed to clear it. Kissinger, on a study tour to India, said all had not been lost - the next American administration would be better prepared to work on a civil nuclear deal with India in case the present agreement, stuck in a political tussle between the UPA and its Left allies, is not operationalised during the George Bush regime.
He said the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement must be operationalised by 2008 end or it would lapse. In that case, he said, the next Congress and India would have to negotiate a fresh agreement.
He said nobody could coerce India into ratifying the Indo-US nuclear deal. 'India has signed the deal for itself, it must ratify the deal for itself and not as a favour to or from the USA,' Kissinger said at a interaction with a select gathering organised by a US think tank - ASPEN Institute and the CII (Chamber of Commerce and Industry).
He admitted that he had heard the views of BJP leader L K Advani on the Indo-US nuclear deal. 'But there is no way I was going to influence him or anyone else. It is up to India to evolve a consensus on the deal, he said.
In an uncharacteristically blunt attack on Indian politics and politicians, former UN Under-Secretary General Shashi Tharoor had, late on Monday, criticised the government for putting the Indo-US nuclear deal in virtual freeze and warned it would 'seriously undermine' India's credibility in international arena.
'When you send your negotiators out to achieve frankly what many thought was impossible to achieve and they achieve it and then we are unable to sell it in our system, it is a pretty damn indictment of the way it functions in Delhi,' Tharoor told agencies during an interactive session at the launch of his latest book here.
'It does undermine seriously our credibility as an international actor,' he said.
Tharoor said the Indo-US nuclear deal had brought about a change in the way Washington looked at India because 'they said that India is not Pakistan, India is not Iran. We can do it with India and no one else.'
Hinting that any delay in implementation of the nuke deal will not help India, he said: 'It is unlikely that under a Democrat government in the US it is going to be about on the same terms in a year and mid from now. We are missing not quite the bus but certainly the rocket,' Tharoor added.
US treasury secretary Henry Paulson urged India to expedite it through the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 'India's democratic processes needs to continue. It is important to get it (the nuclear deal) implemented as soon as possible. It is a positive if India moves forward on the deal. Let the process in India work. Let them come to their own conclusion. I am an optimist. I believe good ideas get done,' Paulson told business leaders at the Fortune Global Forum.
However, the USs most famous diplomat, Henry Kissinger, said there was hope for the nuclear deal even if the present US administration failed to clear it. Kissinger, on a study tour to India, said all had not been lost - the next American administration would be better prepared to work on a civil nuclear deal with India in case the present agreement, stuck in a political tussle between the UPA and its Left allies, is not operationalised during the George Bush regime.
He said the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement must be operationalised by 2008 end or it would lapse. In that case, he said, the next Congress and India would have to negotiate a fresh agreement.
He said nobody could coerce India into ratifying the Indo-US nuclear deal. 'India has signed the deal for itself, it must ratify the deal for itself and not as a favour to or from the USA,' Kissinger said at a interaction with a select gathering organised by a US think tank - ASPEN Institute and the CII (Chamber of Commerce and Industry).
He admitted that he had heard the views of BJP leader L K Advani on the Indo-US nuclear deal. 'But there is no way I was going to influence him or anyone else. It is up to India to evolve a consensus on the deal, he said.
In an uncharacteristically blunt attack on Indian politics and politicians, former UN Under-Secretary General Shashi Tharoor had, late on Monday, criticised the government for putting the Indo-US nuclear deal in virtual freeze and warned it would 'seriously undermine' India's credibility in international arena.
'When you send your negotiators out to achieve frankly what many thought was impossible to achieve and they achieve it and then we are unable to sell it in our system, it is a pretty damn indictment of the way it functions in Delhi,' Tharoor told agencies during an interactive session at the launch of his latest book here.
'It does undermine seriously our credibility as an international actor,' he said.
Tharoor said the Indo-US nuclear deal had brought about a change in the way Washington looked at India because 'they said that India is not Pakistan, India is not Iran. We can do it with India and no one else.'
Hinting that any delay in implementation of the nuke deal will not help India, he said: 'It is unlikely that under a Democrat government in the US it is going to be about on the same terms in a year and mid from now. We are missing not quite the bus but certainly the rocket,' Tharoor added.
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