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US-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama picked up Sen Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate on Saturday. Biden, an influential Congressman supporting landmark Indo-US nuclear deal, has not only served as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee across the last 30 years but also as head of the Judiciary Committee, with its jurisdiction over anti-crime legislation, Supreme Court nominees and Constitutional issues.

Obama, the first black candidate to lead a major US political party’s presidential ticket disclosed his choice after a long political suspense as other contenders gradually fell away, media reports said.

Biden, 65, who had suggested that helping India to meet its growing energy needs will be in the interest of the US is currently serving out his sixth term. He also ran for the 1988 and this year’s Democratic presidential nomination but dropped out. He was first elected to the Senate in 1972 at the age of 29.

But he has tolerated severe criticism from his Republican rival John McCain, a veteran Arizona senator, combat pilot and former Vietnam prisoner of war, over what Republicans contends is his lack of national security experience and his calls for a 16-month withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraq. His choice of running mate clearly is intended to counter some of that criticism.

Biden will make his first big speech as the vice presidential candidate on Wednesday, the third night of the Democratic convention.

Tags: Barack Obama, biden, joe biden, N-deal, Politics, US, US democracy, US presidency, vice president

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has nodded the safeguards agreement with India on Friday making a way clear for the operation of the crucial Indo-US nuke deal. Passed by the 35-nation IAEA board unanimously, India will now proceed to the 45 member Nuclear Suppliers Group for a nod to allowing trade with a non-NPT country, followed by ratification from the US Congress, to finalize the deal.

Earlier in the day, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei had given a positive response by endorsing the India-specific safeguards agreement and asserted that it conformed to “all legal requirements” of his agency.

IAEA expects to start implementing the agreement by next year. The chief told that a total of 14 Indian nuclear reactors will come under Agency safeguards by 2014, six reactors being already under IAEA supervision.

The India-specific safeguards agreement could also be used for the conclusion of other 66-type safeguards agreements, said the chief.

Tags: Atomic Energy, IAEA, India, India USA, Indo US, NPT, Nuke Deal, US, US Congress

The US president George W Bush said that the Indo-US deal is important for both the countries and heaped praise on Indian PM “for his leadership at home” while talking to the PM, Manmohan Singh on Tuesday.

Amid the unrest in Indian political parties due to the Indo-US deal, the confident Prime Minister met Bush in Hotel Windsor on Mount Poromoi on the sidelines of the G-8 summit; hours before the Left parties would be withdrawing support on the nuclear deal.

Both the leaders expressed mutual admiration for each other and spoke of the need for closer relationship between the two countries during the 50 minute meeting.

“Our relationship with the United States has never been in such good shape as it is today…. And it is the intention of my government… whether it is a question of climate change… global economy, India and US must stand tall, stand shoulder to shoulder, and that’s what is going to happen,” Said Singh while reporting to media.

“We talked about the India-US nuclear deal and how important it is for our respective countries,” Bush said before the press in a relaxed mood and displayed personal warmth.

“I respect the Prime Minister a lot. I also respect India a lot, and I think it’s very important that the United States continues to work with our friends to develop not only a new strategic relationship, but a relationship that addresses some of the world’s problems,” said the President.

Tags: Bush, G-8, India, Indo US, Manmohan Singh, MM Singh, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, US

The Left parties on Tuesday announced their withdrawal to the UPA government and said they would meet the President tomorrow to withdraw support to the congress led UPA government implementing their threat to pull the rug over the controversial Indo-US nuclear deal.

The announcement came a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated that “India will approach IAEA very soon” which rendered any further talks on the issue meaningless.

“As you are aware, the Left parties had decided that if the government goes to the IAEA Board of Governors, they will withdraw support. In view of the Prime Minister’s announcement, that time has come,” CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat told reporters.

“The meeting of UPA-Left committee called by government on July 10 was meaningless now.” said Karat.

The four parties - CPI (M), CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP have sought an appointment with President Pratibha Patil for Wednesday morning to submit their letter of withdrawal of support.

“We will also urge the President to ask the government to prove its majority on the floor of the House,” a top Left leader said after the hour-long meeting of the four parties which decided to pull their support to Congress.

Giving a crack to their four-and-a-half year relationship with the UPA Communist Party of India (CPI) National Secretary D Raja said, “We will vote against Congress in Parliament,”

“Why is the Manmohan Singh government keeping the draft of the IAEA agreement secret from the people of India,” the Left leader asked.

In a joint statement, the four Left parties said they had been demanding the full text of the draft IAEA agreement saying it was necessary to see whether “any corrective action is possible on India’s part if the US discontinues the fuel supplies”.

Soon after the announcement of withdrawal of its support by Left to the UPA Government, the Congress has called for an emergency meeting at the residence of Sonia Gandhi, 10 Janpath.

Tags: Congress, India, India US, Indo US, Left, Left Parties, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, UPA, US

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday stated that India will very soon go to the IAEA for a safeguards agreement for the controversial Indo-US nuclear deal. However, he did not specify any date as to when exactly India would go to the IAEA headquarters at Vienna.

While heading toward Japan for G8 summit he spoke to journalists on board the special aircraft, “We have been assured that once we take the decision to go to the IAEA, the process will move very fast.”

“As soon as we decide to go to the IAEA, the matter will be in the court of its Board of Governors and we would certainly hope that the Board can take a quick decision. We have an agreed text which has been agreed to by the secretariat of the IAEA, so I would expect that the process would not take too long,” he added.

Singh, who will meet US President George W Bush on the sidelines of the summit on July 9, said that he would also discuss this issue of nuclear deal with other world leaders and will seek their support for the IAEA and the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG).

Very confidently and relaxed PM said, “Living with tension is part of the prime minister’s job in all countries, including India, but I am not under any unusual tension,”

Having a dig at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L K Advani’s who stated that government should seek a trust vote, Singh said: “We will cross that bridge when we come to it. We are not afraid of facing the Parliament. We will abide by all the Parliamentary norms that should apply to the great democracy that India is. Advani need not give any advice to us.”

Singh further added that the BJP leader “need not give any advice” on the issue. Exuding confidence at the strength of his government, he said “there would be no early Lok Sabha polls.”

Tags: Advani, IAEA, India, India US Nuke deal, LK Advani, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, US, USA

After the Left has set a July 7 deadline for the government to clarify its position on whether it was going ahead on the Indo-US nuclear deal, Congress on Friday sought to reject the deadline. Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters that Sovereign governments or political parties cannot be subjected to deadlines.

Shighvi told that it is the time to work on triple objectives- to do a nuclear deal in national interest, to carry along our allies with us for that purpose and to go to elections as per the Constitutional schedule. Rejecting suggestions of an “unholy alliance”, Singhvi said, “Samajwadi Party and the Congress have never been mutually untouchable in the same sense as the Left and the BJP or the Congress and the BJP.”

Singhvi said the Congress had not changed its stand on the nuclear deal “by even one millimeter”.  He said that the deal is totally in national interest.

“We are happy that other parties in the national interest are slowly converging to our view point,” he said.

Left is strongly opposing the deal to happen. The party has threatened to withdraw support for the government if it seeks approval for the deal from IAEA, the next international move needed to operationalise the pact.

Yesterday Left parties gave a deadline to the government saying that it must tell by July 7 about its plans towards approaching the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for the safeguards agreement, if any.

“We wish to know definitely whether the government is proceeding to seek the approval of the safeguards agreement by the board of governors of the IAEA,” said Prakash Karat, CPI (M) General Secretary, reading out a letter addressed to the government.

The party said it would launch a national campaign from July 14 to explain its opposition to the nuclear deal and what it called “runaway” inflation.

Tags: BJP, Congress, India, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, Samajwadi Party, SP, US

The US intelligence agency CIA claimed that Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden is suffering from a terminal kidney disease and on death bed. Two officials confirmed that he may live only for a few months only.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was the first person to claim that Laden suffered from kidney disease and was on dialysis.

One of the two CIA officials quoted the report that came out six-nine months ago saying, “Based on his current pharmaceutical intake we would expect that he has no more than 6-18 months to live and impending kidney failure.”

The intelligence agency confirmed the news by getting the names of some of the medications Bin Laden was taking.

“It’s trying to make a diagnosis from thousands of miles away with only fragments of the medical chart,” the Time magazine quoted Paul Pillar, the former top analyst and deputy director of the CIA’s counter-terrorism centre, as saying.

Frances Fragos Townsend, who was chief of the White House Homeland Security Council said, “I’ve read all the same conflicting reports that people have talked to you about. I never found one set of reporting more persuasive than another.”

Tags: Al Qaeda, CIA, Death Bed, Kidney Disease, Osama Bin Laden, Pervez Musharraf, US

Left party leaders, who are against the Indo-US nuclear deal, are getting “death threats” through mails. Four top Communist leaders, Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), A B Bardhan and D Raja (CPI), received identical copies of the letter in flawed English by mail for blocking the Indo-US nuke deal and allegedly “harassing” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government.

“Death threat” mail was sent by some Vinay Kateri from Mumbai who warned them against “behaving like terrorists” and accused the Left leaders of “hijacking” national interests.

The letter read: “May god bless this country to eliminate these r—— by any means. People are fed up with you. Enough is enough.”

“People of this country are tired with the r——- behavior and for harassing the government for the last four-and-a-half years.”

“Do not hold this country for ransom. Do not behave like terrorists,” the letter said. It said the Communists were ’suffering from blood cancer, namely anti-American virus’.

The writer also accused them of suffering from “anti-American virus” and said “people of this country are tired with their … behavior and harassing the government for the last four-and-a-half years.”

A CPI-M source said Karat got the hand-written letter along with a computer printout.

Raja said on the receipt of letter, “These kinds of things keep happening in politics. We do not take it seriously.”

Tags: Communist, Death Threat, India, Left Leaders, Left Parties, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, US

The very crucial Indo-US deal conflicts are still unresolved. While opposing the deal, on Friday, top Left leaders threatened the government not to sign the safeguard agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, otherwise they will pull out their hands for the government.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee discussed the issue with the Left party leaders after which Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat said, “We have asked the government not to precede further on the IAEA safeguards agreement.”

“I explained to him (Mukherjee) the Left parties’ stand adopted at our meeting,” the CPI-M leader added.

Earlier, a senior CPI-M leader made a clear statement that “if the government takes the next step, we will break with them.”

Karat expressed the hope that the government will last its full term and that “we are trying to make serious efforts (in this regard).”

Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar, whose party is a key constituent of the UPA, met Karat on Friday morning in an attempt to defuse the situation.

He later said the government should listen to what the Left parties are saying and address their “concerns” while deciding on the nuclear deal.

Tags: Atomic Energy, India, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, Prakash Karat, Pranab Mukherjee, US

To conclude the Indo-US nuclear deal, which was suspected to be almost over, India needs to make some tough choices. The US has asked India to make some “tough choices” in making the deal a possibility.

“… President Bush pressed for the civilian nuclear agreement with India against strong opposition because he’s committed to our long-term strategic partnership. Now India needs to make some tough choices,” a senior US official said.

There are uncertainities looming over this deal for last many days. According to the US official there is rising demand of energy and amid these conditions there is an urgent need to realise the potential of this historic agreement by India.

“… Rising demand for energy is an issue that our countries can’t ignore. We believe it’s essential to quickly implement the landmark civilian nuclear agreement and bring India into the international nuclear non-proliferation mainstream,” commerce secretary Carlos Gutierrez said at United States India Business Council (USIBC) 33rd anniversary celebrations here.

The United States remains committed to being India’s partner in providing clean, sustainable energy. While this includes nuclear power, it also means using other clean energy technologies, he added.

“We are moving toward a political consensus inch by inch. I don’t think it has been put away and I am confident that at some point we are going to arrive at this political consensus within India and that’s the best way to do it,” Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said.

Tags: Bush, India, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, US, USA