Indian Government Wins Confidence Vote on Nuke Deal

The vote was 275 votes to 256 with 10 abstentions.

Honestly, I think that the nuclear deal is a bad one, it provides civilian nuclear technology to India while its weapons program proceeds apace, but it puts me on the side of the the BJP,^* which makes me feeling queasy, though their objection is a nationalist one, that there should be no limits on weapons building and testing, and mine is an anti-proliferation one, that we are rewarding a proliferator with the deal, and will inevitably supply technology for weapons development, simply to benefit the moribund US nuclear industry.

It still has to pass Congress, which is unlikely until after Bush leaves office, and a new administration may wish to tweak the deal.