Bizarre agenda or meditated bizarre ?
Monday, August 20, 2007
The communists are at it again. Quite expectedly, they are opposed to the nuclear deal between India and US. While most of us have a lot of reverence for their integrity and high standards of moral conduct, the Indian middle class has also come to a state of resignation about their supreme ability to make an utter nuisance of themselves with spectacular precision. Nevertheless, their opposition to the deal in question and the current turn of events has taken even the biggest psychics (those of us who can make a lot of money by predicting leftist antics) among us by surprise.
While I do not know most of the bells and whistles of the just concluded deal, I am confident we could not possibly have bargained a better arrangement. We do not sign any discriminatory treaty (viz. NPT and CTBT), we keep our nukes, we get fuel and technology to satiate our energy requirements; to some extent, if not to entirety. Since the important countries of the world (the ones with the money and the power, I am not talking so-called friends of India like Cuba, Iran, Libya, Palestine and the likes), toe the American line, it all works very well for us, even from a larger perspective of strategic and economic cooperation in the years to come.
The opponents on the Indian side to the deal point to one ambiguous artifact in the deal. What if India tests a bomb? I would imagine, for the Americans it would be practically suicidal to put such a thing, as it would be life-as-usual in writing; for the Indians putting the opposite in writing would be of similar consequence. Hence, the silence of both on the issue. Now is that a big problem ?
I think not. If one looks at it objectively, say India tests a nuclear device. Obviously there would be sanctions, deal or no deal. So, lets face it, India wouldn't risk it. Simply because there's now a lot of money at stake, and our economy is increasingly getting coupled to the rest of the world. Besides, we already have nukes to defend ourselves. We do not have adequate delivery mechanisms to send them to their destination, and that is what the bigger issue should be about. Perhaps there will not be serious repercussions either. If India tests a device in a relevant global context (a major war, say), and there would be jobs in America, Australia, Europe tied to uranium and technology sold to India, there's nothing adverse we would be looking at anyway.
Let us on the other hand look at the Leftist's track record. They thought India's freedom was a bad idea, supported Chinese aggression against India in 1965, former KGB records reveal that they were funded by the USSR. They opposed private banks, they thought private electricity distribution was a bad idea, and ditto for insurance. They opposed computerization based on a premise that it would kill jobs, they opposed foreign investment in telecommunications fearing threats to national security. Today they oppose airport upgradation through privatization, oppose pension reforms, oppose foreign investment.
None of it makes any sense at all. Monk makes an important point in his blog post. Perhaps it is all part of a grand Chinese plan. Fund the Pakistanis, arm them with missiles and nukes. Fund the Indian communists, arm them pick axes and shovels to dig trenches in the Indian road to progress. Perhaps it is a very paranoid take on the state of things, perhaps it is taking sarcasm to another level. Or perhaps not. Logically this is the only explanation using which everything adds up.
posted by Angshuman @ 12:41 AM,
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