Nuclear treaty: Rights and Wrongs - by Sameeh Nazrulla

The following amazing review is written by a good friend - Sameeh Nazrulla. The guy is an ideological freak (more freak than ideology), a lazy a** and will never do anything to show his ideas light (other than occasionally writing in some crap orkut communities).

Date: September 17, 2008
"Lemme try to put up a snapshot of Indian political views at the time of the crucial trust vote in parliament (I was following the issue closely till those days)

Leftists - opposed as usual, didn't want any bogie with US as it was ideologically untenable (some other reasons they said were actually convincing, but we'll discuss that later)
BJP - opposed as usual, bcoz they are in opposition
Samajwadi party - supported as usual, because there was important bargaining to be done with UPA
Laloo prasad - cautious as usual; didn't fully support this way or that way, just that they were for the deal but without stating reasons.
Abdul kalam - optimist as usual (actually the funniest response came from this former prez; he said let's go with deal, and go to test when we wanted to. Of course, he wasnt worried abut the billions that wud go down the drain by way of purchasing the reactors; after we tested.)

finally, my own take of it:
Manmohan singh's early initiative seemed noble indeed; but the Left was right for once, when they objected for following reasons-
1. any deal with US wud actually mean bending our foreign policy to satisfy americans; this was proved when india voted against long time ally iran over the IAEA issue.
2. nuclear power, even if enabled after sacrificing so much (how much??) wud still be costlier compared to oil/gas based power. india almost lost the gas deal with iran so as to make way for nuclear power, which is bad economics.
3. 123 wud finally be determined by the Hyde act; which places serious limitations on the technology transfer that would happen , and also the consequences if india were to conduct a nuclear test. In spite of congresss repeatedly asserting that india wud not have to worry about the hyde act, truth was the opposite, as confirmed by independent sources in US admin, as well as the controversial letter that was declassified early september.

however, post NSG meeting, the whole game changed. the waiver was the best thing to happen to india since 1991. "corporate" media lost no time in announcing that MMS ended india's nuclear isolation, just as he ended the economic isolation in 1991. Singh is King again (if we conveniently forget that the King lied continuosly to parliament and nation, on point number 3 we discussed above).

result of waiver:
left sulked, expectedly (when they shud have ideally celebrated the event, but distanced from the impending 123 agreement)
bjp sulked, expectedly, because they were in opposition.
rest-of-india, well.. does it matter anymore?

NOW.. india has doubts about signing 123, since govt says bush jr openly came out stating
1. fuel supply is not guaranteed (remember tarapur episode 1974)
2. sensitive technology might not be made available
(As if these events were not known before. The left was constantly reminding the govt of precisely these 2 things, dammit!!)

meanwhile, france and russia come up with proposals for india. (let's remember that france has the best nuclear tech in the world; ahead of even the US)

so, finally, if india forgoes 123, and signs up with france instead... india's the sole winner out of all this. (yeah, we wud have duped the sole world power into pressing the NSG to vote for us, and then we wud have ditched them)
but we have to wait and watch what happens to 123..

some links:
an old version of CPIM's arguments
http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/20/stories/2007082058071400.htm

a recent column by noted journo/writer MJ Akbar
http://mjakbarblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/fluff-and-bluff-cant-change-harsh.html

implications of hyde act
http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/20/stories/2007082058271500.htm

latest american public perspective
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/opinion/09tue2.html?scp=6&sq=india&st=cse

the letter which created news in september
http://www.hcfa.house.gov/110/press090208.pdf"