Published: October 10, 2008 11:09 pm         

Nuclear deal should have been delayed

The United States and India signed an agreement Friday to allow India to purchase nuclear fuel, reactors and technology from us. We wish the deal had not gone through.

India has been a nuclear weapons power since 1974. Since developing atomic weapons, the country’s leadership has refused to sign nuclear nonproliferation treaties. It seems they don’t want United Nations inspectors poking around. Also, there are no real guarantees our technology won’t be used to develop more nuclear weapons for India. This alone should have prompted Congress to reject the agreement.



But a better reason is that India has an abysmal record of protecting human rights. Attacks on Christians in the country are growing and forced conversions to the Hindu religion are common. According to the Telegraph (London), 40,000 Christians have fled their homes in eastern India since August because they have been attacked by Hindu mobs. Police have stood by and watched the violence, according to reporters for the Telegraph. One-hundred-forty churches and orphanages have been burned, a nun was gang raped and entire villages burned.

So far the India national leadership has done nothing to stop the religious violence.



Tying the nuclear trade pact to improvements in human rights would have been an acceptable and routine diplomatic tactic. Yet Congress and the Bush administration seem to have ignored the option. We can only wonder why.

In the long term, helping India increase its supply of electricity is the right thing to do. But, with the country’s government unwilling to allow international inspection of its nuclear program and its hands-off attitude to the awful violence against Christians, the right thing to do now would have been to delay the approval of the nuclear trade deal.