Spoilers don't prosper

Spoilers don’t prosper

The present clamouring against the signed and cabinet-cleared Indo-American Civilian Nuclear Agreement by the Left Combine and the Opposition BJP is both obscurantist and retrograde. As a filibustering tactic in parliament, complete with slogan shouting scenes, general cacophony and walk-outs, it is destined to end in a whimper. This is misguided opposition to a foreign policy triumph that ends over three decades of nuclear apartheid against India. Perhaps this is the very problem, that the agreement, after tortuous and careful negotiations, has come to fruit. Much of the present uproar may be fuelled by common jealousy and deserves to be ignored with the firmness and resolve that the prime minister has shown thus far. In the unlikely event that the Left withdraws support and brings down the UPA government over this historic breakthrough, it is unlikely that any successor government will choose to attempt renegotiation of this nuclear agreement for fear of failure to wrest any further concessions from the only remaining superpower.

But for the moment, even as the Left’s opposition to the agreement is predictable given its antagonism towards closer ties with the US, the opposition of the BJP is somewhat puzzling. After all, it was the NDA government, led by the BJP, which initiated and fostered the tilt towards closer ties with the US in the first place!

And what is the fear after all? If India does need to test another nuclear device at any point in the future, we will surely go ahead and do so, guided solely by our own national compulsions. Cutting off our nuclear fuel supplies or even halting civilian nuclear cooperation, if it comes to that, will not stop us attending to our security needs. But by that time, we would be that much more knowledgeable in civilian nuclear technology and manufacturing and considerably more capable of making our own way. It is therefore inexplicable that we should be concerned about our security interests being compromised by this agreement. Let us remember that we attained rudimentary nuclear power and weapons status despite economic sanctions and suspended nuclear cooperation from the days after our first test in the mid-seventies.

As this agreement is implemented in the years to come, we can at last go forward towards energy security, essential in a country that imports over 60 per cent of its oil. This agreement will also boost nuclear power technology absorption, not only from America, but France and Canada and other nuclear powers and help to diversify our sources of machinery, technology and fuel from various members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) around the world. In addition, the understanding with the US is that even though she may be compelled to cease nuclear cooperation with India, bound as she is by the rigours of her Hyde Act, in the event we test again, she will not stand in the way of other nations in the NSG continuing to cooperate with us so that our supply lines and so forth are not disrupted.

In terms of the perceived, and opposed, foreign policy tilt towards the United States, let the opponents ask themselves whether our long-term leaning towards the oil producing nations of the Middle East including Iraq and Iran gave us any appreciable advantages even in the pricing of the oil, let alone in other areas? And let us contrast this meagre yield from decades of unswerving loyalty to the Arabs and Persians with the defence and agricultural cooperation benefits we have already realised from Zionist Israel, a staunch US ally, within just a few years after we normalised our diplomatic relations with them.

As for the Left’s ideological overlords, the People’s Republic of China – the situation, right from the sixties when they conquered large tracts of the North-East of India with consummate ease, and from which they withdrew only in the face of intense American pressure, has always been uncomfortable for India. We are still, to date, as China continues to demand Arunachal Pradesh and other territorial concessions from us, forced to deal with this menacing neighbour from a position of weakness. Surely it is time for India to update its foreign policy in line with our current aspirations and place in the comity of nations!

The world has come to accept that India is now on an accelerated economic growth path that is likely to sustain for many years to come. This will naturally make us richer, and assuming this to be so, is it not important to use our improved resources to build the military capabilities to offset any external or internal threat without compromise? But while the opponents to the nuclear cooperation agreement with the US may not disagree with this premise in principle, they insist on ignoring the potential for this agreement to act as a great enabler towards this objective. While the agreement is indeed a civilian accord that will facilitate the building of nuclear power plants in India, it clearly represents an unmistakeable strategic alliance with the US and the developed West that will help us achieve both energy and military security over time.

As for the other criticism about India turning into an American satellite with proscribed foreign policy freedoms, perhaps we need to welcome it for its possibilities and nod to realism. After all, for all our much publicised “non-alignment” we were regarded as a de facto Soviet satellite, and were persuaded, if not compelled, to follow the USSR’s foreign policy initiatives in return for their civil and military cooperation. This long-lasting alliance forged by free India, though date-expired now, endured for decades and served to force an American tilt towards Pakistan and China, even as we were ruled out of contention to our long-term disadvantage. That is, till very recently: this is a second chance and we cannot afford to let it pass us by.

We must also realise that our present warm relations with the US owes more to the realities of unfolding geo-politics than it does to any visionary diplomacy on our part, or even a sudden rediscovery of each other’s virtues, but should we not at least show the good sense to grasp the opportunity that the tide of history has presented us?

(1,045 words)

Title: Spoilers don't prosper

By Gautam Mukherjee
Tuesday, 14th August 2007

This and all other original essays on GHATOTKACHSERIES are copyright 2005-2007 by Gautam Mukherjee. All rights reserved.