ABSTRACT
The US disagreement with India on its nuclear weapons programme had clouded the relationship between the world's oldest and largest democracies with India remaining the target of US efforts to 'curb, roll back and eliminate' its nuclear weapons programme. The approval of the nuclear deal by the US Congress, however, signified the broad spectrum of support that the idea of a USA–India partnership enjoys in contemporary US polity and society. The head of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission expressed his concerns about the act impinging on India's research and development programme in the nuclear power sector and asserted that clarifications would be sought from the USA. The Bush Administration was successful in sidelining the issue of non-proliferation in the political discourse as the debate evolved in the USA, the whole debate in India was and continues to be about the impact that this deal will have on India's nuclear weapons programme.
