Hillary praises India for successful elections

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commended India for successfully conducting the gigantic exercise of elections. "The Indian elections takes a long time because they're the biggest democracy in the world. And they do a pretty good job in running their elections," Hillary told the House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on State Foreign Operations and Related Programme.

Referring to the risks involved in the event of escalation of tension between India and Pakistan, both of which are nuclear armed, Hillary said "the Obama Administration would vigorously work towards this".

She said that the process would start once the new government was formed in India after the general elections. "Those (confidence building exercise) are not likely to be undertaken until the elections are over," said Hillary.