The much-awaited India-US civilian nuclear deal has been placed among the top three legislative priorities in the coming lame duck session of the US Congress. The session will start from November 13.
But this still not certain to take it as guaranteed because the bill is at third place among the top three bills. The large pro-India groups are very much worried that two other legislatives are given more importance than India bill.
The two legislative priorities, indicated by White House, ahead of the Indian bill that was at top most priorities in the White House list.
The other bill is related to to permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status for Vietnam. Bush wants this status for Vietnam before his scheduled visit there on November 18 and 19.
The second bill is related to the domestic terrorism surveillance bill. This is also the wartime priorities of the Bush Administration.
Then the Indo-US Civilian Nuclear Bill comes despite of citing as top priority from the top State Department officials.
In any case, on the question of the previous bills, if any dispute rose between Democrats and Republicans, the fate of the India bill would certainly weaken.
