IAEA Chief arrives in India

MUMBAI—The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog head begins a long scheduled trip to India on Monday that has turned into a political flashpoint as a nuclear energy deal with the United States threatens to spark snap elections.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is ostensibly on a technical visit to speak at an energy conference, visit a nuclear research facility in Mumbai and meet with Indian nuclear officials.
But the trip comes just as India faces an informal end-October deadline to begin securing clearances from the IAEA and others to clinch the nuclear energy deal — opposed by its communist allies who say the deal would enslave New Delhi to U.S. policy. The deal would be a milestone in India-U.S. relations, not the best of friends during the Cold War. It would allow India to import U.S. nuclear fuel and reactors, despite having tested nuclear weapons and not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Critics say the deal unfairly rewards India and undercuts a U.S.-led campaign to curtail nuclear ambitions of nations like Iran.—Agencies