You would think that with the advent of so many news channels and so much scrutiny every politician would atleast be scared of appearing to be available for a price, but the events of the past week have been ludicruous to say the least. If you have an MP in the Lok Sabha(what an irony to call it that), the sky is the limit to what you can ask and if not the sky you can atleast get the airport renamed after your father and since when did becoming convicted of murder stop anyone from wanting to be a central minister? The main opposition party seems to have forgotten that it was the one who initiated the deal in the first place and wants to join hands with the communists and not a bleat from either the religious idealogues who spend so much time burning up Valentine day’s cards or the politburo who is supposed to denounce all religion except that of Mao. Even the amount of money is not a secret anymore, it could cost the UPA merely 25 crores a pop to buy a few votes to run the country for another year.

Coming to the issue, which is purpotedly behind all this, the nuclear deal, I really wonder how else could the deal have been drafted given the compulsions on both sides. India is a growing economy and needs the energy to power this growth engine - so either you burn enough coal to cover your lungs with soot or switch to nuclear power (given that every dam built can also lead governemnts to fall) . Now nuclear power can come about in two ways, either through Uranium, which we dont have enough of or through Thorium which India has enough off, but unfortunately will take 10 years to fructify. So now the option is to either bite the bullet and sign the NPT or look to the one country which can bend the rules enough for us. So while the US makes money selling uranium, you can make use of all the plutonium you have to stock up for military purposes and what’s even more - the other countries can line up to supply uranium and technology. I don’t even know how we can oppose this, and the leader of the opposition came as close to admitting this as he could.

Consider the opposition to the deal, some say they want the world to recognise as a nuclear power, but wouldnt that also mean recognising Pakistan and for that matter Israel and Iran and is not in anbody’s interests especially considering they are all at odds with the other. India will be subject to intrusive inspections by IAEA, they say, but as a member of the IAEA, India is always subject to safety standards, so if somebody else wants to do it for you, what is the problem, especially given that you can classify a reactor as military and remove it from all inspections. Another objection is that India cannot test, but isnt that a hypothetical condition? Does India need to test and what happens after that - India will be subject to sanctions and will not receive any more fuel and return any fuel obtained - so really what is the issue that we will have to return fuel or that we wont have any of it at all? India must enter into any treaty as an equal they say, the US is willing to give you a treaty which they spend time to modify to accomodate all your concerns - musn’t we be satisfied especially given that we are the ones in need and that our large neighbour would be more than happy to continue to be a monopoly buyer or a monopsony, if my economics is correct. Also, if the US is the concern, I really didnt come across anything that tied India to US as sole supplier and we could more than happily turn to France and Japan whose fast breeder technology is streets ahead of the US and will not provide a speck of information without approval. The Left was peeved that the parliament was not provided a copy of the IAEA agreement and now that it has been provided, I would seriously like to how much of this is actually different and how much of it actually made a difference in the stand of third front leaders from Chattisgarh or Karnataka or UP?

Maybe parts of the deal are wrong and can be modified, but has there ever been an attempt to provide any feedback, especially given that they were allies for four years and were considered for all matters sundry. And really why are we assuming that the scientists who negotiated the deal, have lesser national interests than the alliance-a-day leaders? National interest, now really…

First Posted at Prem Panicker's on July 21, 2008.