New Delhi, March 1
The India-United States nuclear deal was almost through even before President George W Bush set foot on Indian soil this evening.

Immediately after President Bush’s special aircraft Air Force One landed here from Kabul, the two National Security Advisers, Mr M.K. Narayanan and Mr Stephen Hadley, plunged into a meeting to fasten the final nuts and bolts of the nuclear deal.

But since any deal has to be 100 per cent through for reaching the fruition stage — not 90 per cent or 99.9 per cent — the two sides were engaged constantly through the day to make sure that no ambiguities or problems surface later on. It was a long night ahead for the negotiators on both sides and it would be known only tomorrow whether a breakthrough is reached finally. It would be for the two principals to announce the outcome of these negotiations.

An indication of the rosy scenario on the nuclear deal front is that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presided over a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA), convened at a short notice, to seek its approval of the nuclear deal’s final blueprint which the government has prepared.

It is understood that the Americans are game to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s February 27 announcement in Parliament of putting 65 per cent of India's installed nuclear power capacity under safeguards. They are also comfortable with India wanting to keep the Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) programme out of the purview of international safeguards for the time being.

Washington, on its part, wants to invoke the perpetuity clause, meaning that whatever nuclear facilities India offers to bring under IAEA safeguards will remain so in perpetuity. The UPA government has no problems to this but an influential section of the Indian scientific community is stiffly opposed to this and many other things.

During their meetings today with Mr Naryanan, several leading scientists shared their scepticism over the negative fallout of the Indo-US nuclear deal over India’s long-term strategic programme. They sought certain written guarantees from the Americans. These scientists have cited the case of Tarapore nuclear reactor, built with American assistance. Washington went back on its commitment to supply fuel for Tarapore after India exploded a nuclear device in 1974.

The Bush administration has point-blank conveyed its inability to New Delhi to meet these “impractical” suggestions. Washington’s contention is that it cannot give written guarantees when the Congress had not even moved a legislation yet for making necessary amendments to allow India access to nuclear technology and material.