The Great Indo-US Nuclear Deal!

Well, for the past couple of days we’ve been incessantly hearing about the Indo-US nuclear deal, the pro-nuclear deal congress vs the anti-deal Left parties not to forget the fire breathing opposition. So what exactly is all the fuss about?

India boasts of being a place where any and every project undertaken (by a few optimistic souls) has to pass complicated bureaucratic procedures, approvals from whomsoever concerned (and not concerned!) and what not (red tape in short). History is replete with examples of projects which have been wrapped up, thanks to the “run here-take this sign- run there-take this certificate” ways of the Govt, The Mangalore Power Company -shutdown to name one such debacle!

Getting back to the main story, the main highlights of the Indo-US deal are as follows:

• It lets the US make a one-time exception for India to keep its nuclear weapons without signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
• The amendment overturns a 30-year-old US ban on supplying India with nuclear fuel and technology, implemented after India’s first nuclear test in 1974.
• Under the amendment, India must separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities, and submit civilian facilities to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

So does the deal benefit India? Well, IMO yes of course! It guarantees access to state of the art technology and nuclear fuel from the US (without even being an NPT signatory!), gives India the liberty of opening up just 14 of the 22 reactor to international inspection, it provides a solution to ever growing demands for fossil fuels and to top it all the US will engage Nuclear Suppliers Group to help India obtain full access to the international fuel market, including reliable, uninterrupted and continual access to fuel supplies from firms in several nations.

Well, then what is so controversial about the deal that there has been humongous uproar by a few parties against it. Since I couldn’t fathom it for myself (probably was carried away by the rosy picture), here are some interesting facts I came across.

First things first, doesn’t the deal undermine the NPT? Why has India been given such a concession, when the US curtailed all supplies to Iran despite them being signatories of the NPT? Probably because India is now being considered as their “key strategic partner” post 9/11. Is there any ulterior motive of joint military operations with India in the days to come? Is this nuclear deal another step taken by the US to strengthen New Delhi in the face of prospective rise in the power of China. Is India being made to play the role of a “fence” or hedge to contain China?

So many questions unanswered, yet the nuclear scientists in India are for the deal. Lets hope they know best, what they are getting into. Lets hope this starts a new era of a strategic partnership between Uncle Sam and Hindustan!

Bhutto,Benazir and the bewildering legacy of Pakistan

Well, this certainly is a very heavy and a much discussed topic to choose, for my first post, but nevertheless…..I am glad that after 400 plus days of pure preaching about blogging , I finally am sitting upright in my chair, penning my thoughts down…

The Benazir assassination left quite an impact on me, and I was glued to the print and television media days after the incident lapping up all that they had to offer about her life, family, and the Bhutto legacy. The shallowness in our lives was quite disturbing against what and how much she had done to carry on a legacy…And I am not sure why, but the moment I hear Kenny G’s “Songbird” (does it ring a bell?),I am reminded of this Lady.

27^th of December 2007, witnessed the bloody murder of Benazir Bhutto, the ex prime minister of Pakistan. It jolted the entire world. The Frankenstein monster she had nurtured during her political regime had finally struck..and hard..

What was more intriguing was the mysterious circumstance in which she died, the actual reason unknown to this day. Oh and of course not to forget the numerous theories about the way she died, which the various news channels poured out. I distinctly remember that evening when my dad was surfing news channels just to get different perspectives of the story, the CNN IBN reporter claimed that the bomb blast had been a decoy to distract the attention of the security guards and to allow more room for the assassin to finish his target, whilst almost parallely the NDTV correspondent claimed that the bomb had gone off just a moment after the bullets were shot.

This was not all, the Pakistan Govt which was accused of a serious security lapse, retorted the fact that she was killed by bullets and instead argued that she had succumbed to the forceful hit against the lever of the sunroof in the Toyota SUV. ( Incidentally Toyota claims that the lever is far away and that there was no chance of that hitting her head)!!

Well what actually happened we may may never learn, as all evidences were washed off soon after and no autopsy done (something which surprised the world)

She was indeed an awe-inspiring woman of indomitable spirit. Yes, it was she who fostered the growth of Osama, it was she who encouraged militancy in Kashmir, she who discouraged Sonia Gandhi from entering politics citing that she (Sonia) was a mother of 2 kids and therefore should not get into the murky waters of politics!

Yet, her tenure at Oxford as the union president, her audacity to come back to her country to oust military rule and establish democracy, when she could easily have stayed back in London or Dubai make me salute her spirit….The Bhutto’s have lost most of their near and dear ones in the complex political feuds, some of them perhaps orchestrated by their own kith and kin….but lets hope they have brighter times ahead and are able to establish peaceful progress in Pakistan here after…