Has the Manmohan Singh government finally given up on the US-India nuclear deal?
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - The sudden decision of the Manmohan Singh government this week to postpone a meeting, with the Left parties, scheduled for May 28 (to secure their consent for the government to go to the International Atomic Energy Agency to sign an agreement with that body to pave the way for India to approach the Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting in early June) may turn out to be the last nail in the ‘coffin’ of the much discussed US-India nuclear deal. The nearly 3-years long vociferous Sikh Advocacy Campaign against the US-India ‘nukes-for-mangoes’ deal has not been in vain!On Monday India’s External Affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee, told reporters, in New Delhi, that the meeting with the Left parties, who oppose the nuke deal, has been postponed. No further dates have been announced. Over the weekend, the Left parties had issued a statement opposing the rationale of depleting uranium supplies for going ahead with the US-India nuclear deal.
Some media reports attribute the postponement of the government meeting with the Left parties to the recent electoral reverses the Congress suffered in the state of Karnataka where the Hindutva, right wing, neo-Nazi BJP has won and will rule. As a result the Manmohan Singh government is not comfortable in confronting Left leaders on the US-India Nuke deal issue at this point in time. Left leaders have often indicated to the media that they were not opposed to India going in for nuclear energy per se and that their objection was limited to the Indo-US nuclear accord. Communist Party of India (CPI) national secretary, D. Raja, has been reported to have said that, “Why did India not sign an accord with Russia when he (Prime minister) went there in November last year?” Russia he said “had offered to sign an agreement to supply additional uranium fuel for four more nuclear power reactors, at Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Russia in November last year”. Raja accused the Manmohan Singh government of pulling out at the last moment from that agreement with Russia as “it’s priority is only the Indo-US nuclear deal and the 123 agreement.” Raja mentioned that the government acted the same way with the French offer on Kalpakkam power plant also in Tamil Nadu. In the Left parties estimate, the Bush administration would become a lame duck government after July and therefore not in a position to secure the passage of the 123 agreement from the US Congress. The Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) general secretary, Abani Roy, was even more candid when he accused the Manmohan Singh government of wanting to “rush to the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) only to push through the 123 agreement. What is the hurry? Let us wait till July. After that Bush administration will be lame duck. Then we will see.”
In a typical double faced approach the Manmohan Singh government is signaling to its interlocutors internationally that it is not giving up just yet. At last week's plenary meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in Berlin, Indian officials briefed the grouping on the state of play on the nuclear deal and the IAEA safeguards agreement. The briefing was done by Venkatesh Varma, the Ministry of External Affairs point-person on the IAEA safeguards negotiations. The message from India was that, the US-India nuclear deal was not dead and would be completed. The briefing was done on the sidelines of the meeting, and concentrated on the safeguards agreement. India is not a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and can only brief the members informally. The real work of getting an exemption from the NSG will be done by the US and other countries like France, UK and Russia, who want to start nuclear commerce with India. Incidentally the chairmanship of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) has just passed to Germany from South Africa. In 2007, Indian officials had also briefed the NSG at their meeting in Cape Town on the 123 agreement which was close to completion even at that stage.
Every expert recognizes that the U.S.-India ‘Nukes-for-Mangoes’ deal circumvents the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which came into force on March 05, 1970. In fact this U.S.-India deal encourages Nuclear proliferation and ridicules the 45-member (NSG) Nuclear Suppliers Group and its raison d`etre. Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) came into being after India tested a ‘peaceful’ nuclear device, on May 18, 1974, after pilfering the US/Canadian supplied CIRUS Tarapore nuclear reactors in breach of sovereign agreements. The 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) seeks to contribute to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons through the implementation of Guidelines for Nuclear and nuclear related exports.
The three million strong prosperous Sikh diaspora, living free outside India, have a vital interest in the US-India nuclear deal aptly called ‘Nukes-for-Mangoes’ deal by the great American commentator, Pat Buchanon. (> http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=8671 <) One does not have to be a military expert to know that, unlike the two conventional wars fought in South Asia, in 1965 and 1971, the next Indo-Pakistan war will be a nuclear one in which the 23 million strong Sikh minority (living as unhappy captives under Indian rule in the Sikh Homeland of Punjab, Khalistan) will face annihilation along with numerous historic Sikh holy shrines located in India as well as Pakistan.
The three million strong Sikh diaspora (which includes half a million Sikh/Americans in the United States) is still working with the American and European non-proliferation lobbies and is hoping that the US-India ‘Nukes-for-Mangoes’ deal falls through as it does not curtail nuclear weaponization. For a backgrounder read Khalistan Calling, dated November 15, 2006, headlined, “Washington-based Khalistan Affairs Center launches advocacy campaign to educate U.S. Law makers against the US-India ‘Nukes-for-Mangoes’ deal,” by clicking at the following link:> http://khalistan-affairs.org/home/khalistancalling/2006/november15.aspx <
The half million Sikh-Americans, a part of the 3 million strong Sikh diaspora, fear for the safety of their 23 million Sikh compatriots captive in India, living dangerously and unhappily in their South Asian homeland of Punjab, (behind a barbed wire ‘Berlin Wall’ on its Western border) which is sandwiched between two ‘angry’ nuclear-armed rivals, India and Pakistan. As a result the Sikhs have been demanding a nuclear free South Asia and hope the ‘Nukes-for-Mangoes’ deal just goes away, as it is a question of survival of the Sikh people and their historic holy shrines located in both India and Pakistan.
The world’s 26 million Sikhs want a South Asia free of missiles and Nuclear weapons and nuclear tests – they want peace in order to survive.