'Indo-US deal cannot be renegotiated'

Leaders of Indian-American community expressing concerns over the stand taken by the political parties in India on the Indo-US civil nuclear said the deal cannot be renegotiated as it may not get approved by the US Congress or the next President cannot get it passed as the chances are virtually zero.

"Parties opposing it are placing their political interest over national interest. If this Bill comes back for any reason, the present Congress or the next President cannot get it passed as the chances are virtually zero," chairman of the US-India Political Forum Ashok Mago told PTI.

Terming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a man of integrity, Mago said, "For any one to think for a second that Prime Minster Manmohan Singh will agree to sign an agreement which is not in the national interest of India should be unthinkable.

Mago, expressing his surprise over the late reaction of the parties on the deal said, "why political parties in India waited this long to oppose it now so strongly as to want to kill it, when everyone knew the terms of the Hyde Act."

"This bill should be looked as an energy bill to provide India the clean energy it desperately needs to keep up with the pace of its economic growth," he said.