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Vaishali Honawar in Washington DC

Several leading members of the United States Congress have called for sanctions against India, warning that the nuclear tests will significantly alter improving US-India relations and jeopardise India's bid for a UN Security Council seat.

Senator Joseph Biden Jr (Democrat-Delaware), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called India's nuclear test a "dangerous action" that could "fundamentally alter US-India relations and harm regional security in Asia." He added, "The president has little choice but to impose sanctions."

Under the Arms Export Control Act, if the US president determines that India has exploded a nuclear device, the sanctions automatically will go into effect within 30 days. The Congress can waive the sanctions through legislation, but there wouldn't be much chance of that, given the present mood within Congress.

"It is difficult to see what benefits India derives from this action. Sanctions will hurt an economy that has only recently begun to show signs of improvement. In addition, India's claim to global leadership and its bid for a Security Council seat will certainly suffer because of an act that so clearly violates an international norm," Senator Biden said.

He added that the United States should urge India to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and refrain from further testing. "This incident also underscores the need for the United States Senate to ratify the treaty," he said.

Senate majority leader Trent Lott (Republican-Mississippi) predicted trouble for the ratification of the treaty in the wake of India's test. "This is a very bad thing they (India) have done, and it will have ramifications," he said.

Senator John Glenn (Democrat-Ohio), architect of the 1994 Nuclear Proliferation Act, said India's test "represents the triumph of fear over prudence." The veteran astronaut, who is preparing to return to space later this year, described the Indian act as a monumental setback for efforts to halt the global spread of nuclear weapons -- "not one but three blows to world peace." The Nonproliferation Act calls for tough sanctions against any non-nuclear weapon state that detonates a nuclear explosive device, and India may become its first target.

Under the law, the country will be denied US credits and credit guarantees, and loans from US banks, except for food and other agricultural commodities. The law also requires US opposition to the country's loan requests to the World Bank and the IMF. While the United States cannot directly bar World Bank aid to India, Washington holds a weighty vote (around 20 per cent) at the bank and India is its largest borrower.

Senator Glenn called on Pakistan to "exercise all the restraint it can muster while the world community prepares its response to this extremely unfortunate and ill-advised action by its neighbour."

What has, perhaps, most shocked and embarrassed Washington is the failure of US intelligence to detect the test before it took place. It was US intelligence reports in 1995 and subsequent intervention from Washington that managed to scuttle India's plans to conduct a nuclear test at the time. This time, however, they were caught napping -- just as they were when Indira Gandhi pulled off the country's first "peaceful" explosion in 1974.

US ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, had been assured during his recent visit to India that the country wanted to improve ties with the United States while giving no hint that they were planning to conduct nuclear tests. Indian Foreign Secretary K Raghunath also gave no indication of India's intentions during his trip to the United States last week.

Senator Biden said, "India's action is a setback to those of us who were encouraged by the recent improvement in relations. We have much in common with India and should have closer relations. These tests will make a better relationship much more difficult to achieve."

He also said the United States should step up efforts to curtail missile development in South Asia and to ease tensions in the region.

Meanwhile, nonproliferation advocates in Washington described the tests as a "devastating blow" to their efforts and expressed fears that this was a first step by India towards the actual use of a nuclear weapon against its neighboring countries.

Michael Krepon, president of the Washington-based think tank, the Henry L. Stimson Center, said India has opened itself to damage "economically, politically and strategically."

"The resulting damage can be quite open-ended unless the government of India takes steps to rejoin the international community, and to reduce nuclear danger in southern Asia," he said.

Joseph Cirincioni, a nuclear policy expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said this was "a devastating blow to the international non-proliferation regime...it is sending shock waves through the regime."

"While in India the government is proud of its action, people working for peace here are deeply disappointed," he said.

Describing the situation in the wake of the testing as "deep crisis," Cirincioni said sanctions against India would help "as there has to be a cost to pay and it might help convince Pakistan not to test. There has to be a consequence" to such actions.

If India were to sign the CTBT now, he added, it would be "the only positive thing that comes out of this." He added that this, perhaps, was India's first step towards actually building and stockpiling of nuclear weapons.

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