Politics

A Done (Nuclear) Deal: India Wins, Indians Loose

By Dweep Chanana ⋅ October 10, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Yesterday President Bush finally signed legislation authorizing civilian nuclear trade with India. This is the culmination of a 3 year process, started in 2005. This is HUGE. Why? Because (as the WSJ says) it “reverses three decades of U.S. policy.” That is no mean feat for a (relative) lightweight in world affairs.

TIME magazine explains the true significance:

The significance of the deal, known as the 123 Agreement, cannot be overestimated. In addition to reversing 34 years of U.S. policy opposing nuclear cooperation with India — a nuclear weapons state that continues to refuse to sign the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty — the deal wins acceptance for India’s de facto nuclear weapons state status at the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the international cartel that controls trade in nuclear weapons, fuel and technology.

India can now celebrate. Not only do we get access to technology previously denied, but we keep our nuclear weapons. Besides, this is an unprecedented opportunity to build even closer ties with the world’s sole remaining superpower. As Senator Kerry argues, the true benefit of the deal emerges if “U.S.-India relations must be about more than exchanging nuclear fuel or technology.”

Indians, however, should be mourning. Because even as the country can benefit, the deal’s passage reveals the complete failure of our politicians to act in concert.

Upon the deal’s passage Prakash Karat of the CPM opined, “it will be a complete surrender to the US and a betrayal of India’s vital interests.” A complete surrender to the US? Mr. Karat should be asked how it is then that so many Americans consider the deal to be against America’s vital interests? Surely, it cannot be against the interests of both countries? And the communists should not invoke India’s vital interests, given their history of fomenting revolution in post-independence India and the CPM’s roots in the Naxalite movement.

At the other end of the political spectrum the BJP opposes the deal too, saying, ”We have acceded to the nuclear non-proliferation regime with the India-US nuclear deal.” And that, Mr. Ravi Pratap, is a good thing. Because we have acceded to the regime as a nuclear weapons state. The question to be posed to him is – so why not accede to it?

Both the Left and the BJP’s actual concern – that the deal restricts India’s ability to conduct nuclear tests – is no criticism at all. Because the deal’s restrictions only take away what India never had, they are not a valid reason to oppose the deal. Yet, the BJP continues to say that “it is a time to worry but the Congress bosses are tom-tomming their sense of pseudo achievement.”

What is worrying is not the deal – the BJP no doubt would have been “tom-tomming” too, if it had been in power. What we should worry about is the inability of our politicians to put aside their petty differences on a deal that is so obviously in our favor. If they cannot do so on an issue that has almost no domestic implications – and thus no real impact on elections – can we really hope for progress on critical things like labor reform, education, and healthcare?

It is sad that when such an opportunity presents itself Indians can count on the help of foreign Presidents, but not on their own politicians across the aisle. We may have surrendered some pride and sovereignty – but the blame for that must go to the BJP and the CPM.

The deal benefits both India and the US. Non-proliferation may be somewhat weaker. But the real looser is the Indian electorate.

Tags: indo-us nuclear deal, nonproliferation