RSS Spokesman on US-Indo Alliance

[Guest guest]

A Sweet Deal for Whom?

By Ram Madhav National Spokesman RSS

 

Walter Anderson described it a `Sweet Deal'. Of course he was quoting

some official of the Indian embassy in the US. Right from Dawn in

Pakistan to Tribune in India, all papers have concluded that through this

deal America has `recognized India as a nuclear power'. Everyone

wishes India had such a skillful diplomacy! But alas, that is not our

experience. We normally end up giving more – even in the case of

Pakistan – than what we get.

 

 

 

Joint statement issued by the President of America and the Prime

Minister of India from the US has certainly raised hopes of bettered

relations between the two countries. It has certainly created an

atmosphere of optimism and replaced skepticism. But in any

international relations caution should be the mantra always. For, as the

saying goes, there will be no permanent friends or foes in diplomacy,

there will only be permanent interests.

 

 

 

Indo-US joint statement of Manmohan Singh and Bush, when seen in

the light of the interests of our nation, seems falling short on several

counts if not betraying outright mortgage of our interests.

 

 

 

The much-touted Nuclear Power status is only a lip service. And unless

we are accorded that status officially, it will be risky to open our nuclear

establishment for inspection by the IAEA officials. For a non-nuclear

country these inspections are going to be much more stringent. We

must remember that the IAEA is an independent body. While there is

no denying the fact that the US enjoys tremendous clout in all such

bodies one cannot be sure whether it would be able to help us in these

matters. In Iraq, the IAEA defied the US and went ahead with its own

investigations and reporting which actually busted the US bubble.

 

 

 

More importantly, as many scientists had pointed out, we do not have

any separation of defense and civilian nuclear programmes. For that

matter, except America no other nuclear country – Russia, China,

Britain, and France – has such watertight separation. All the nuclear

facilities that India has are all primarily civilian facilities only while we do

use them for defense related purposes. That only means we would be

exposing our defense programmes to international inspection. It

amounts to an abject surrender of vital national interests.

 

 

 

Even if we now decide to separate civilian and defense programmes it

will be beyond our means. We cannot afford the human resource and

financial implications involved in such a separation. Even now we are

unable to support our existing nuclear programmes properly despite the

Planning Commission sanctioning funds. Our nuclear programmes are

starving of funds. Our Prime Minister was on record stating that India

needed $ 140 billion to build nuclear power infrastructure. It is well-

known that nobody invests in infrastructure. Infrastructure is the

responsibility of the governments. Question is - do we have such

resources?

 

 

 

It takes us to the other question; why are we so eager then to plead

with America for an agreement that is not really going to help us. This is

where our government is beating the bush. The government's claims

that this agreement would allow it to get support from allover the world

for its civilian nuclear programmes while it can continue with its defense

nuclear programmes as before are hollow. Firstly, as discussed earlier,

no such separation exists in our country. Secondly, support at what

cost?

 

 

 

Before going out have we fully exploited our own resources? It is more

than a decade since our geologists have unearthed huge Uranium

reserves in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh. But citing opposition

from some NGOs as the excuse the government has not commenced

mining activities there. Today, our Tarapur reactor is almost shutting

due to non-availability of fuel.

 

 

 

Instead of attending to these domestic matters why are we rushing to

America? Will the government ever come out with the real commitments

given by it to the US? Or will it continue to present laughable logic –

`America wants balance of power in the region and hence wishes to

strengthen India as a counter-balance to China'. If America really wants

India as a regional counter-balancing power why not support its

legitimate claim for a seat in the Security Council?

 

 

 

It brings us to the crux of the question – why is America so keen on this

agreement? The point that several pundits missed out is the $ 5 billion

defense purchases commitment given by India to the US. We are

trumpeting it as our victory. The Americans must be smiling in their

sleeves. It makes perfect business sense for them to take Indians for a

ride by offering carrots but hiding the stick behind.

 

 

 

Bottom line is: America will secure orders for arms from India thus

giving great relief to its ailing arms industry; It will push India for so-

called `separation' of civilian and defense programmes thus effectively

killing the defense programme; It will use IAEA to get to the bottom of

our nuclear capability; And yet will continue to deny India the Nuclear

Power status or a seat in the Security Council; Continue its sanctions

against Indian industries and R&D establishments; Continue its

patronage to Pakistan and pandering to China.

 

 

 

The Americans are cock-sure about we Indians. Hence comes the rider.

India will do everything needed by the time of the visit of Mr. Bush early

next year irrespective of whether Mr. Bush will deliver on what he had

committed – because for him, he needs to get `Congress approval'.

 

 

 

A nuclear suicide for India.

 

 

 

But to get back to Walter again, definitely a `Sweet Deal' for America?

 

Ram Madhav National Spokesman RSS

 

 

My Comments

Number of Comments: 1

Page: 1

 

Madhav has rightly called the bluff behind the "historic" deal. The

Congress- Left combine is on a selling spree of India. They want to

make sure that we are sold out before nationalist forces get another

shot at power. and ironically, the media instead of applying the scalpel

to the deal, proclaims it as a historical achievement. no doubt, even the

courageous ones have falled for the US carrots which come in the form

of FDI. No wonder, there are allegations that it is corporate policy and

not editorial policy that drives media these days.

Posted by: vinod new delhi-bharat 31st Jul 2005