Almost every day, like a daily ritual, most contributors to this post are up in arms, going gung-ho for the ‘Indo-U.S Nuclear deal’ in its current form, so much so that they beat the Left parties in their own game of slogan shouting. The new mantra: ‘Nuclear! Nuclear! Nuclear! : Now! Now! Now!,’ seems to have taken precedence than any other considerations, including even to let the parliament run a debate on it.
These contributors seem to conveniently overlook or fail to comprehend that the deal is about nuclear energy (and by default Nukes) and not about dealing in lollypops or jellybeans, besides the bindings of the Hyde Act incorporated in the deal.
In this context, for the benefit of the readers, the recent essay by retired Col. Anil A. Athale, Fellow at the Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research titled, ‘N-deal serves the US better’ explains the background of the deal and I reproduce excerpts from it in the following paragraphs below, that may try to remove the action of the daily doses of ‘convincing pills’ fed by some contributors through this post that the US offered Nuclear deal is the best thing that could ever happen to India to some even comparing it to God sent opportunities.
Much of the public debate on the Indo-US nuclear debate seems to be missing the woods for the trees. The deal is not about the nuclear issue at all; it is only a means to an end. Essentially the tough negotiations had a single point agenda — India’s place in the emerging world order.
Apparently, given the likely geopolitical situation for the next 50 years, the US is actually interested in India’s military build up. India’s nuclear weapons programme was apparently not the sticking point holding up the agreement. For, it is today in the interest of the US itself that India develops nuclear capability comparable to that of China.
If one is to believe the media reports, then the problem area between the US and India was the reprocessing of spent fuel, fast breeder reactors and the thorium cycle. All these are essential if India is to attain ‘energy security’ and free itself from oil dependence. Interestingly, while the Arabs produce the oil, the oil market (and profits) are controlled by the ‘Seven Sisters’ or the American-controlled oil companies. It appears that as an insurance against future change in Indian policies, the US is loath to permit India to be energy independent.
