| Published on 21-08-2007 In National |
| Viewed 827 times |
| A welcome "right" turn by the PM |
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Written by
Cho Ramaswamy |
Large cross sections of people [read politicians] have got the chance to exhibit their "patriotism."
The acceptance of a draft of the accord between us and the Americans [for the sake of convenience we will term it "the agreement"] has been called "a symbol of the betrayal of our sovereignty" by all those who object to it.
From the leftists to intellectuals to the [rightwing] BJP, the pendulum of opposition has swung in only one direction as far as this issue is concerned.
All the protestors belonging to different political denominations have raised sets of objections necessitated by their varied beliefs.
Some of them habitually entertain doubts whenever the Americans are involved in anything; others believe that opposing them will give their political identity a new fillip, yet others opine that any concord with the USA will land us in a political camp diametrically opposed to China – therefore ought to be eschewed and finally there are a few who belong to the scientific community who reasonably apprehend that this agreement will impede the R & D agenda of nation's defence needs.
The first three groups mentioned above have based their opposition to the agreement either on political gains or absolute absurdity and hence can be ignored. The last group's fears certainly have to be addressed, something which is properly being done by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and his team of officials.
Whenever the relevant debate takes place in Parliament, one can expect more clarity in the matter.
As far as the common people are concerned, they should know about a few aspects of the imbroglio.
For a start, this agreement will pave the way for new sources of nuclear fuel – especially for our power plants – thereby ending the isolation enforced on us by globally accepted atomic powers and their network of nations after we tested indigenously developed atomic weapons.
Following this agreement, not only the USA but also several other countries will be forced to export technology and raw materials to us – certainly a welcome change.
Our team of officials who negotiated the deal has ensured that our defence establishment's R & D will remain beyond the purview of the U.S. and its allied nations that are part of the IAEA. Therefore, hypothetical arguments about our security concerns being compromised are baseless.
While it is true that the USA can scrap the agreement and demand our returning their technology and fuel if we conduct tests for weapons in future, there are several inbuilt safeguards within the ambit of this agreement to prevent the Americans from dictating terms to us.
Before starting a "punitive" process, the USA will have to go through several rounds of discussions, compensate us according to prevailing international prices in such an unlikely event and cannot stop arbitrarily the supplies so as to bring our nuclear power stations to a grinding halt.
Therefore, even if we decide to go against the agreement and test for nuclear ordnance, the nation will be talking from a position of strength.
Apart from all this, by allowing international inspectors to take a good look at our civil installations we have nothing to lose. On the contrary, we stand to gain in advanced technology and additional raw material to feed our power stations to help us function better.
Finally, we have not enslaved ourselves by inking an agreement whose terms are loaded against laws of natural justice. On the other hand, we stand to gain by strengthening our association with the US.
On that count, by countering the leftists who oppose this agreement simply because they have pledged their conscience to the Chinese, our Prime Minister has done us a good turn.
(Translated from Thuglak by TSV Hari) |
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