Nuclear issue always dominated and influenced the general course of Indo-US relations. Delivery of US nuclear fuel and technology to India under the bilateral Agreement of 1963 was frequently contested by the US Congress, particularly after Pokhran-I. Ever since India resisted the American-sponsored multilateral nuclear non-proliferation agreements such as NPT and CTBT, Congress was opposed to cooperation with India. In this regard the Executive and Legislative branches of the US Government did not always see eye to eye. This paper examines the current controversy over the Indo-US Nuclear Agreement of July 2005 in historical perspective. Unlike in the past the Bush Administration is now very enthusiastic to cooperate with India in the promotion of India's civilian nuclear energy generation capability. However, if the past experience is any guide, the US Congress is likely to be sceptical and obstructive when the process of implementing the Deal unfolds in the near future.

The Nuclear Deal signed between India and the United States in July 2005, which is now enacted into law as the Hyde Act by the US Congress, has been a subject of intense public debate in India. No recent foreign policy issue in India invited as much spirited public discussion as the July Agreement. Foreign policy, no less a part of the domain of public policy, passes through the familiar stages of policy-making: policy initiative, debate, formulation and finalisation. But, unlike other policy issues of general concern—disinvestment, labour law reform, farm insurance, reservations, rural employment—foreign policy does not generally draw much public attention and interest. Foreign policy and diplomacy have been usually regarded as subjects of elite decision-making—initiated, discussed and formulated by the highly informed and professionally trained foreign policy bureaucracy, which guides the country's political leadership.

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