Dealing with the Deal

The Congress does not feel it necessary to explain the nuclear cooperation agreement with the US to the masses because it feels there is no need for it as the deal is self-explanatory, while the Left and the BJP have branded the deal ‘‘notorious’’ and ‘deceit’’ on the people. The BJP, a party known for pro-US positioning on other occasions, has been a bit more careful. It has punctuated its opposition to the deal with concern about India being ultimately relegated to the status of a non-nuclear weapon state and about forfeiture of its right to conduct nuclear test. But for the Left, the right to conduct nuclear test is a non-issue because, after all, the comrades have never hailed the Pokhran tests, nor have they appreciated research in indigenous nuclear science that has led to India being recognized as a nuclear power. For the Left, it is cooperation with the US — of any kind — that forms the substance of anti-deal diatribe; the argument being that India, as a sovereign nation, cannot be seen reducing itself to yet another US stooge, and the nuclear deal is a means by which the ‘imperialist’ US wants to bind India for ever. Therefore, the Left has opposed nuclear cooperation with the US not because it is opposed to the deal as such but because the other party is an ‘imperialist’ power that is out to make India subservient to its global hegemonic interests. And by taking this stand the Left has also tried to prove how tenaciously it has clung on to its core ideology despite temptations to dilute it. The Left has also been at pains to explain its ‘principled’ opposition to the growing US sphere of influence even as it has no problem with China’s belligerent overtures in South Asia — because in the Communist theory China cannot harm India! That said, as one of the CPM politburo members indeed attempted, the Left would also have the deal interpreted as anti-Muslim because the US has killed Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan and it is with this marauder that the Congress is determined to forge a nuclear alliance. It is another matter that the people of the country, including sensible Muslims, have seen through such politics of opportunism. As for the BJP, its opposition to the deal — especially after the unveiling of the text of the draft safeguards agreement with the IAEA — stems mainly from its status as the principal opposition party in Parliament; that is, from its compulsion to oppose the deal for the sake of the party’s status as the most virulent Congress adversary. Its own brand of anti-deal politics has made the saffron party cleverly refrain from commenting on certain paragraphs of the draft safeguards agreement with the IAEA that address India’s strategic concerns, such as Para 5 that says that the safeguards agreement will be implemented in a manner ‘‘designed to avoid hampering India’s economic or technological development’’ and ‘‘not to hinder or otherwise interfere with any activities involving the use by India (of) nuclear material, non-nuclear material, equipment, components, information or technology produced, acquired or developed by India independent of this agreement for its own purposes’’. In other words, the BJP’s opposition to the nuclear deal is dictated primarily by the disadvantage of not being the ruling party of the time that can take credit for making India a part of the international nuclear regime. Therefore, the politics of opposition remains the best option even for the BJP that during its term did its best to bring India closer to the US in every manner possible. Not to invoke that past is a great expedient then. The Congress surely knows this only too well, hence its defence of the deal. source: sentinel assam