One of my friends from across the border asked me why I welcome the globally much debated nuclear deal which was clinched by India in NSG meet recently. I told him I would write a blog on the same from my view point and so am here now keying in my take on it.
The deal was much criticized, debated, argued, counter argued both globally and internally within India. I bet most of ordinary citizens of India don’t have much info on what really the deal meant for them. For most of the public, the deal don’t materialize into any visible immediate solution for any of their problem, so it cease to be an issue to be fought for votes in the impending elections except that the hue and cry made by parties made them sit and notice ” Ok there is something called Nuclear Deal that India is trying to get through!, oh wait did you ask what the deal is about? Nah, sorry no one explained us the facts “- this is exactly the reflections millions of Indians will be thinking of. The deal unfortunately is not properly explained to the masses. Ok, that’s a different topic. Here in this blog, I want to write my perception on it and why I welcome it.
- Power and along with it the recognition elevates the status of any nation globally. In this world, a nation has to have its power equation right and its power recognition right. This is one main reason, I love the nuclear deal. The deal, in spite of stiff opposition, was single mindedly pursued by the government of India and US and got the stamp of approval from the 45 countries of NSG in spite of visible half hearted approval of many. It’s a signal of the arrival of India in the global scene.
- India is Power hungry. Indian tiger is hungry for industrialization, growth in all spheres. Along with the demands of industry and the demands of 1 billion plus population comes an enormous demand for energy. Without energy, the ambition of the people and the state can be stalled. We need energy and we need huge energy from all sources. And we need Nuclear energy. And so we need this nuclear deal. We need the expertise and the technology that the west could offer. We need the collaboration to improve our local expertise. So the simply we need the nuclear deal and along with it the windows of opportunity and technology.
- Apart from the energy aspect, the deal opens an industry worth multi billion dollars. Nuclear energy field and its associated fields open up a new huge market for Indian business houses. As of today I read in TOI , that already 45 Indian companies have send their applications and proposals for business deals that runs in multi-million dollars. This is just a tip of iceberg.
- 3 decades of nuclear un-touchabiltiy that India has to face from the nuclear suppliers has been broke. India is accepted, recognized.
- Singh is King. Kudos to Dr. Manmohan Singh, our Prime minister. His single minded pursuit for the deal which is certainly not going to fetch any votes in the vote bank politics has to be appreciated. The visionary and his team who were able to convince his party and most parties of his coalition and struggle for 3 years or more for the deal in spite of stiff opposition from communist and opposition parties definitely needs a standing ovation. Here is a Prime minster, who risked his government for a deal that would change the course of the nation in global path. Hats off to him. Indian democracy along with its many clowns and hazardous politicians occasionally keeps throwing surprises, which steers the nation on the right path. Call it a divine hand, sheer luck or beauty of democracy!!! People talked about the test ban and for all those, India is not planning a test every year, are we? We have nuclear weapon. And now the weapons are recognized too. The more we gain power internationally, People would recognize us. The time will come, along with our economic power and global acceptance that even if we do a test. The global nation will find excuse to not to antagonize us. Simply because, we all accept a power bigger to us, love it or hate it, we tend to go along with it.
Ok, as of now this is my take on nuclear deal.
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I think the most important aspect of the nuclear deal is the technology we will now have access to. Technology that was long denied to us because of its “dual-use” nature. With the deal on our hands we get access to such technology and we can make progress in many areas which were stuck due to the lack of access to this technology.
We should not be under the impression that our energy needs will be satisfied because of this deal. It most definitely will not. So i disagree when ppl project this nuclear deal to be an answer to our energy problems. Right now 3% of our energy needs is met by nuclear power. By 2020 the figure will be 15% thanks to this deal. Hence clearly there is a need not to fall into the hype over this deal but to sit and introspect other means of securing energy. The nuclear deal may give us energy security but it will not give us energy independence. For that we need to focus on solar power. Solar power will be the key to meeting India’s energy needs in the future.
With our depleting reserves of coal and the sky-rocketing prices of oil; nuclear and solar power is the way to go forward. Now that the nuclear aspect is met we need to focus on and draw out long term strategies to harness our solar power.
The deal is NOT an affirmation of India’s status as a major power. Its an affirmation of the potential of the market available in India at a time when the nuclear industry is stagnant in the USA. This can be seen from the fact that the deal hardly made any news on any international channel except for a passing mention in the business section of CNN.
Having said this, i do agree that this deal is a source of pride for all Indians as it has removed us from the status of “nuclear pariahs” and vindicated our stand of not signing the discriminatory NPT. It is a vindication of our record of non proliferation and a recognition of the fact that India is a mature and stable democracy.
Ulag , agree with you.
Nuclear deal and the nuclear energy wont solve our entire energy crisis but partly help it . And along with , we should work on solar , wind energy . The most clean energy. India has a rich potential for those energy and it has to be harnessed.
Thanks for sharing your insigh. Appreciate it.
A very well researched article. For a different view on the subject read http://indiaunbound.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/lies-damn-lies-statistics-nuclear-deal/ & http://indiaunbound.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/the-lies-continue/
I am sure it these articles would be an eye opener for many.
PS : Congratulations. I hope to read many more insightful articles here
@ India Unbound.
Good presentation of your view point in your blog but then i read a comment there from one Kiran for all your charges . any reply to it ?
For any issues in this world – there will be pros and cons. its the final tally that matters. and i feel the deal is good for India in tat regard.
Tx for dropping by.
Most of the points raised by Kiran have been answered here http://indiaunbound.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/the-lies-continue/. Please go through them too.
The deal would be beneficial to us only if we do not build any more reactors. Let us just take advantage of spill over benefits of the deal in other sectors.
My main grouse is against wasting billions of dollars to create white elephants in form of Nuclear reactors.