Questions for the Left by DN Ghosh, Leader Article, TOI, Nov 16 2007
the country needs clarifications from the Left on the following counts:
First, why does the Left think that a nuclear deal, which is a bilateral agreement between two countries and which needs the consent of all nuclear suppliers and an international supervising agency, is a camouflage for drawing India in a global strategy intended to serve US interests? Is it that the government of India, in its eagerness to have nuclear sanctions lifted, has made a bargain with the US agreeing to work in tandem with America's state department and Pentagon in its global power game? If the Left thinks that the government has given any such commitment, it must explicitly say so; no government has the right to remain in power if it has in fact entered into any such secret understanding that would jeopardise the country's independence.
Second, China has a similar bilateral agreement with the US (which contains many more conditionalities than the one with India). If the Left thinks that by such an agreement China has been handicapped in pursuing an independent foreign and defence policy, it must say so clearly; if, on the contrary, China has not compromised its independence in any way, then why does the Left think that India will succumb to US pressure?
Third, the Left would cry wolf when India approached multilateral agencies for temporary financial relief. The government of the day was severely criticised on the ground that, with imperialist America dominating these institutions, India would be making herself a victim to America's capitalist designs and lose her freedom in pursuing economic policies that are in her interest. Nothing of that sort has happened; India has been crafting and designing her policies that strike a balance between what is required to be done in a globally interdependent world and the dictates and compulsions of her own interests. What makes the Left think that we would surrender our sovereignty in the future?
Fourth, on the strength of a similar deal, China has drawn up an ambitious plan to increase the nuclear component of power generation and, as current reports show, is scouting aggressively all over the globe for sourcing and securing supplies of nuclear fuel. This is exactly what India needs to do: diversify sources of power generation. China will continue exploiting her initial advantage while we remain a laggard, eroding fast even our existing indigenous resource. No country of India's size and potential can view this with complacency.
Finally, one has to take note of the string of insinuations as to the real game plan of the Left. The long-term consequences of backing out of the deal are deeply worrying; it is bound to put India, permanently, as many commentators have argued, in a position of comparative disadvantage vis-a-vis China. These do not seem to concern the Left: in no case should India be allowed to do anything that, in their perception, harms China, for in the party primer on geopolitics, the interests of China are primary and those of India secondary.
..what about tomorrow, the intangibles which are not at the negotiating table today and which we have no idea of their worth. How expensive will it be to snub the US ?
