Indo-US nuclear deal and PM’s dilemma

— Subhas Chandra Goswami
Dr Manmohan Singh is a politician by accident. Politics was not his first profession. In fact he does not have a political constituency. But he is an eminent economist and administrator by his own right. In 1991 the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao rightly selected him as his Finance Minister to usher in liberalisation of economy in the country, the result of which is all before us to see. It is also a fact that he was not the first choice Prime Ministerial candidate of the Congress Party. Even then, ‘non politician’ Dr Manmohan has done a splendid job as the Prime Minister inspite of all the constraints he has in managing a coalition government of political parties with their diverse political agenda. He also carries an eminent identity beyond his official post. Under such circumstances, truly speaking, vacating the chair of the Prime Minister of the country is not a big deal for him. In fact when he wanted to go ahead with the nuclear deal earlier, faced with opposition from the Left Front who dared him to go ahead to face the consequences, he wanted to go ahead and if required to resign. Under such circumstances, asking Dr Manmohan to resign at the drop of a hat does not look proper.

Let us start with flood related issues of Assam. Rightly, there was hue and cry in Assam as the Prime Minister during his recent two-day visit to Assam did not make an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas of the State, leave alone declaring Assam’s flood as a national disaster or declaring Central relief to the flood-affected people. Unfortunately, instead of serious deliberations, almost everybody started playing politics. Let us start with Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. He tries to get away by making very shallow comments like flood is there in western countries also, flood is not something new for Assam, we have enough money to manage relief, so why ask money from the Centre, and so on. Some politicians, organisations, individuals and AASU asked the Prime Minister to resign, if not at least from the Rajya Sabha seat from Assam for his failure to be sympathetic towards Assam. We generally make noise about floods at the time of the deluge only. Why not continuous deliberation on prevention, if not at least about reducing its impact in Assam. The present system of building embankments on both sides of vital rivers started in the mid 1950s as a temporary measure to fight floods. Temporary measures became permanent. It is high time to plan and execute something more scientific, including international treaties with the neighbouring countries on the subject. Coming back to the recent two-day Assam visit, I would rather blame the Chief Minister who could not or did not chalk out a programme for the Prime Minister keeping in mind people’s psyche and need of the hour. There is no doubt we needed relief. But blocking relief material to other states is definitely not in good taste. Next time in case of a disaster of higher magnitude, Bihar may get block relief material coming to Assam through Bihar. We may force Dr Manmohan Singh to do more for the State he represents, but let us not extend it to his resignation from the post of Prime Minister of the country.

We must not forget that on the civil nuclear deal, Dr Singh is the chief architect from this country. Flood or no flood, he will be remembered for a long time for his contribution and positive role he played around the nuclear deal. However, he has faced a lot of flak, especially from the Left Front on this issue. Going to the genesis of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, we are aware that a pre-requisite before signing the deal was the waiver by the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). It is an irony that NSG was formed in 1974 as an angry reaction to India’s first nuclear test. Now, the first hurdle, that is waiver by the NSG is crossed and with this India can legally do nuclear trade with most of the countries, including Russia, France and UK.

For his role in the Indo-US nuclear deal, Dr Singh is charged on three counts by his detractors. The first charge mainly made by the Left Front is that he has compromised with the sovereignty of the country. After removal of nuclear isolation by the NSG, the Indo-US civil nuclear deal is to do business and exchange of technological information. It is hard to understand how it can threaten the sovereignty of India. If it was so, India would have lost its sovereignty long back when India entered into countless treaties with erstwhile USSR for supply of military hardware and technology to this country. The second charge is that with this deal India will lose its right to test nuclear devices in future. It is to the credit of Dr Manmohan Singh that India is the only country to get the waiver from the NSG without signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and NPT. The crux of the issue is that by this deal we have not legally bound ourselves not to carry out any nuclear test in future. From the days of NDA, successive governments are following the policy of no first nuclear attack, as well as voluntary unilateral moratorium on nuclear tests. After signing of the deal nothing is going to change from the earlier situation. To the credit of Dr Singh, India got a clear waiver. Our option to carry out nuclear tests is not bound by any treaty. According to Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, “they do not prohibit us from testing, but that does not mean that we are permitted to do so by them. We have the right to act and they have the right to react. And if we act we will have to face the consequences of all our actions”. After nuclear isolation of India from 1974, the Indian nuclear scientists were not even allowed to participate in international nuclear seminars. It will not be so now, and for the effort of Dr Manmohan Singh to end this nuclear isolation, he deserves kudos and not brickbats. The third charge against him was that he did not take the nation into confidence about the deal. The matter was discussed through the media as well as at the political level. We understand it was discussed threadbare at least with the Left Front. The government discussed with them at the peril of fall of the government, when Prakash Karate declared that they will pull the government down if Dr Singh proceeded further with the deal. In negotiation between two countries, a deal on anything is not done in public and it is an established diplomatic norm. If there was some confidential exchange of notes by the President of USA and his Senators, normally such exchanges are not made known to the other country. Dr Singh should at least get the benefit of doubt on this count.

There is a strong public opinion in the country against Dr Singh and his government for its failure to maintain internal security. Unfortunately, the vital issue of security has become a tool in the hands of the politicians to serve their political agenda. In the recent past there were serial blasts in Jaipur, Bangalore, Surat, Ahmedabad, Agartala and at Delhi. To stop terrorist activities the paramount need is the political will to confront the issue. We should remember that after 9/11 there is hardly any major terrorist activity in USA. This is due to strong political will to confront such activities. Unfortunately, this is not so in this country. Terrorists should not be judged by their religion, but religion, terrorism and alleged human rights violations are mixed up by the politicians in this country due to which this menace is not fought the way it should be. The Prime Minister has lately started saying that the government will add muscle to the “substantive anti-terror law” in line with the “global consensus on the fight against terrorism”. Backing for a new legislation has come from the Administrative Reforms Commission chairperson Veerappa Moily, who opined that tough anti-terror provisions could be inserted into the National Security Act.

Can Dr Singh take harsh decisions against terror now, especially with so many leaders from his own party and coalition parties with known soft corner for terrorist outfits like SIMI and IM. Even if his government is accused of a soft attitude towards terror, it is meaningless to ask him to resign at this juncture as the next general election is only months away. Let the people of India decide through their franchise whether Dr Manmohan Singh did enough to fight terror.
sourcE: assam tribune editorial 11.10.08