A nuclear deal with America provokes protests
After more than three years of political stability under a Congress-led government, India is bracing itself for the possibility of early elections. Fierce opposition to the controversial Indo-US nuclear deal on the part of the government's communist allies has in effect reduced the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to a minority government. The Left parties insist that the deal, which aims to lift a three-decade US ban on sales of nuclear fuel and reactors to India, would compromise India's sovereignty and prevent it from pursuing an independent foreign policy.
On September 10th, noisy protests by opposition lawmakers?-including members of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has demanded a joint parliamentary committee to discuss the nuclear deal?-forced an early end to the parliamentary session, four days ahead of schedule. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, has asked her party's allies to get ready for early elections, while the BJP leadership has scheduled talks to work out its election strategy later this month. Unless the impasse is resolved, it now seems quite possible that Manmohan Singh's government will not complete its five-year term.
http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9820974
After Japan,
it is India's turn
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