What the nuclear deal means to India - Part Two

Hello people!!! This is my 2^nd part of the series-What the nuclear deal means to India. (Excuse me for the long break between the two articles. You won’t see them again.)

The background

The framework for this agreement was a Joint Statement by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and U.S. President George Bush, under which India agreed to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and place its civil facilities under IAEA safeguards and, in exchange, the United States agreed to work toward full civil nuclear cooperation with India.

The Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006, also known as the Hyde Act, is the law that modifies the requirements of Section 123 of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act to permit nuclear cooperation with India. This enabled the U.S. to draft a 123 Agreement to operationalize what was agreed upon in the 2005 Joint Statement and permit nuclear cooperation with India.

The 123 agreement defines the terms and conditions for bilateral civilian nuclear cooperation, and requires separate approvals by the U.S. Congress and by Indian cabinet ministers. According to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India, the agreement will help India meet its goal of adding 25,000 MW of nuclear power capacity through imports of nuclear reactors and fuel by 2020.

Now, signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) are granted access to civilian nuclear technology from each other as well as nuclear fuel via the Nuclear Suppliers Group in exchange for International Atomic Energy Agency-verified compliance of the NPT tenets. India, Israel, and Pakistan, however, have not signed the NPT, arguing that instead of addressing the central objective of universal and comprehensive non-proliferation, the treaty creates a club of "nuclear haves" and a larger group of "nuclear have-nots" by restricting the legal possession of nuclear weapons to those states that tested them before 1967, who alone are free to possess and multiply their nuclear stockpiles. India insists on a comprehensive action plan for a nuclear-free world within a specific time-frame and has also adopted a voluntary "no first use policy".

In response to a growing Chinese nuclear arsenal, India conducted a nuclear test in 1974 – credit to Mrs. Indira Gandhi and her team - called "peaceful nuclear explosion" or as a deterrent to potential threats. Led by the US, other nations set up an informal group, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), to control exports of nuclear materials, equipment and technology. As a result, India was relegated to a pariah status within the international nuclear order. India conducted 5 more nuclear tests in May, 1998 at Pokhran; credit to one of the most respected statesman in the world-Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The politics and a lot of media spice!!!

As mentioned in the first part, the growing influence of India among the Asian countries as well her growing prowess in economic, diplomatic and military aspects made the US realise that India will be a potent and shrewd ally in taming the rising Chinese dragon. Hence they went all out to secure this deal and to hint, in a big way, that two can play in this game of power.

And in this way started perhaps the most amazing PR exercise one has been subjected to; besides the one that goes on during the US presidential elections. What started out as a simple report on some deal regarding nuclear power now snowballed into a full fledged media circus and a game of despicable politics and ego clashes between anyone and everyone you can think of – be it some dalit leader or a general secretary of some party following an outdated ideology, even the most insignificant numbnut in power got publicity. Everyone wanted to get a piece of the pie.

The media was portraying the deal in only the possible positive aspects. Never have I seen such biased analyses done by educated people before. Verdicts were being delivered on debates as if they were based on some oracle ; truth being all of it was a plot to convince or fool the Indian people in believing that this deal will be the best thing that ever happened to us Indians. The Indian media should have been convicted for felonious fraud for doing this to us but the pie was too tempting for them.

(Owing to offensive ideas and language, people below 18 please skip this paragraph…oh yeah I am pissed!!)

On one hand we had the left, the most unproductive, hypocritical and anti-development front our country has ever seen. Claiming to give outside support to the government, it opposed every possible reform the government put across. Anti-nationals and atheists from Kerala and West Bengal who were not even elected representatives were treating the government in the same way the American soldiers treated prisoners at Abu Gharib prison. And mind you in no way is the government going to escape from my criticism. Had real men been in power they would probably do to these senior citizens from the politburo what Shakti Kapoor was best at. In my opinion, Mr Cho Ramaswamy said this about Left that summarises what I think of them being in our country – IF THE LEFT HAS A FUTURE IN INDIA, THEN THERE’S NO FUTURE LEFT FOR INDIA.

Coming to the other buffoons, the BJP and the NDA were setting benchmarks in being pathetic opposition members and making self-contradictory statements. Although the groundwork for the deal was laid out by NDA, for the sake of political opposition they said whatever came to their minds. Without doubt it was unadulterated bull crap. Then we had the dalit b***h that wore pink, which started having dreams of becoming the prime minister of our country. And this was on the support of idiots and errand boys whose only agenda was to create their own state. The government went as low as renaming an airport to the name of father of one such rag picker. Independent MPs were getting royal treatment and the whole political system of our country made us feel as hopeless as a bastard would on Father’s day.

We got to see how elected representatives of our country could stoop to all time lows when it came to behaving on national television or respecting/disrespecting the powers given to them by The Constitution. MPs had price tags, loyalties started changing, England-bred morons became famous on youtube (and I am not talking about our prime minister).One could see that civilisation was coming close to failure.

Yes, at the end of the previous paragraph I have shown some hope because this deal will be of use to us. How useful it will be is for time and the administration to tell.

The Chinese angle

The Chinese perspective and position on this issue is of important for the following issues:

1. They are a very hungry and powerful nation who happens to be our neighbor.

2. India shares a relationship with the Chinese which can be ideally described as the one between married celebrities – not exactly long lasting and too small for two egos of their size.

3. USA and China don’t have anything positive on their resume except for trade relations. Each places themselves as an adversary and a competitor. This is perhaps the best opportunity India could ever get to become a superpower.

Surprisingly, the Chinese were not very upset with the deal taking place because they understood the growing energy needs of India and also the need to maintain good relations with the US. Also by maintaining dignified silence (or even approval at times) they contributed to the cause of nuclear non-proliferation. And here ends the good part. (The Chinese are not very nice when it comes to India.)

There are many outcomes to this deal that may alter the way things move. Firstly, the Chinese will now make a deal with Pakistan to make sure India and the US is at their best behaviour. China and Pakistan, in fact, made some high profile announcements in anticipation of the Indo-US nuclear deal. In July 2005, before Singh’s visit to the US, China and Pakistan had met to consult on matters relating to arms control, disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation. Subsequently, on 14 July, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) announced plans for 13 new nuclear power plants in the next 25 years, for which the Pakistanis have admitted they were largely depending on China for assistance. Already, Chashma-2 has the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) providing most of the financial and technical support. Realising this, representatives from the US and India very well know that the balance in Asia can be maintained by mutual trust and support.

One more thing to be noted is the economic opportunity in India in the form of developing nuclear infrastructure has made some entities very excited in China as well. So we may be cautious when it comes to diplomatic ties with the Chinese but on other fronts, things seem to be much more secure.

In the next part, I would conclude this series with some facts that probably not many people know and what must be done to ensure a bright and safe future.