Homi Jehangir Bhabha was a patriot who believed India to be the equal of any other country in the world. Despite the political obstacles created by the pacifist Jawaharlal Nehru and India'stimid bureacracy, he managed to ensure that the country got developed a scientific base that would ensure self-reliance within 25 years. Sadly, he died in circumstances that are as transparent as the murder of Patrice Lumumba or Salvador Allende. Bhabha was a victim of those forces that saw India as a Coolie State ?in perpetuity? (the phrase used by Manmohan-Bush). Such a state has no right to develop technology on its own, but must simply carry the load for the Herrenvolk, remaining satisfied with the crumbs thrown in its way. In a sense, India would become a pet dog, fed and maintained (technology-wise) by its ?owners? and having only as much liberty as they permit. Once Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh sign the 1-2-3 agreement with the Bush administration, as both are eager to do, India'sstatus as a nuclear Coolie State will get formalised. Even though most officials are aghast at the compromise to national interests attempted by Sonia-Manmohan, they are helpless and forced to parley with those who are seeking to emasculate India under the cover of tall talk about helping the country become a global power.
It has been widely known since the infamous Iraq episode that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is a subsidiary wing of the NATO powers, getting used by them as cover to carry forward an agenda of ensuring that no non-NATO country beyond China ever be in a position to match any of the major NATO countries in strategic capability. Although India is part of the Indo-European civilisation (as indeed is Iran), and sees the west geopolitically as a close ally, yet the planners in Brussels and in Washington persist in their efforts to push India into a box that would guarantee that the country remain a providor of cannon fodder the way it functioned during World War I and II. Despite the immense sacrifices made by India and Indians in both wars, imperialists such as Churchill, ignored this in favour of raves about the (undoubtedly significant) sacrifices made by countries such as Canada and Australia that sent much smaller numbers to battle than did India. The effort of Sonia-Manmohan is to create a legal framework for the continuation of this ?Coolie Legacy?, and the US-India nuclear deal is a significant part of the architecture for this remission into a dependent status. Although Manmohan Singh is saying nothing about the steps being clandestinely taken in furtherance of the objectives of him and his political superior, facts on the ground show that the Coolie Plan is proceeding apace. One sign is the increasing presence of the IAEA in India, which seeks to build an infrastructure here similar to what was done in Iraq during the 1990.
The IAEA in its role as the nuclear watch dog for the United Nations has been making preparations for setting up a full fledged branch of the Agency in India. The purpose of the proposed massive ?regional? office would obviously be to facilitate unhindered, unannounced and intrusive safeguards inspections in any and all nuclear and related facilities in India, as well as perhaps its neighbours and South East Asia as a whole. Aided by the Additional Protocol that Sonia-Manmohan want India to sign, the ?safeguards inspections? would include an examination of ?intent?, a bureaucratic doctrine intended to prematurely flush out any future technological advancement. It comes as no surprise that long after the PM has repeatedly assured the Parliament that India will be treated at par with a nuclear weapons state possessing advanced technologies, INFCIRC-66, the facility specific regime applicable to non-nuclear weapons or rogue states, has been openly suggested as the safeguards template rather than the version reserved for nuclear weapons states. The only ?India specific? part will be the illegal ?perpetuity? clause (which the US is insisting on) against future fuel supply assurances. It may be noted that the US has already reneged on these assurances in the past, as noted in their precedent on Tarapur. Having an IAEA base in India would also assist the US in providing a set-up for independent US multi-agency inspections so as to ensure that India does not break free of Coolie status.
Ironically, this nuclear gutting of India comes at a time when the US is actively engaging NATO and the erstwhile Warsaw Pact countries in soliciting a missile base while unashamedly enhancing its own armoury with numerous weapons of mass destruction. With only about 7 of its over 100 reactors under the most liberal inspections regime concocted for the purpose, the IAEA turns a blind eye to any attempt at increasing US controlled missile launch pads the world over as India is being prepared to be the next Iraq, now that both Iran and North Korea are refusing to fall into the trap that Sonia-Manmohan have rushed into. Only this time, the IAEA realising the huge task ahead of it in terms of manpower resources required for such large scale intelligence gathering, will be taking no chances. It would prefer to set up shop on Indian territory so it may directly intervene in the actvities of every scientist and engineer in the nation that it sets its sights on, on the flimsiest grounds available (even basic research institutions are not off the hook), and thereby force its way into every nook and cranny of India'sclosely guarded programmes, so as to learn valuable secret technolgy and begin to systematically take apart the system from the inside.
The prereginations of Shyam Saran notwithstanding, it is clear that India cannot expect any substantial concessions from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). For an organisation which owes its very existence to the 1974 ashes of Pokhran-I and where every employee has India'sfirst nuclear test to thank for their salary, it is clear that the voluntary nature of the moratorium of testing by India will never be conceded. Indeed, if the US did, by some miracle, decide to waive this requirement, the NSG would insist on it. Controlled as it is by the US, the EU, Japan, China, Australia and their common interest in emasculating India technologically and preventing the country from realising Homi Bhabha'svision of energy self-sufficiency through thorium, a programme that has been repeatedly sabotaged from within and without.
A similar impasse exists with reprocessing. Having accepted non-nuclear weapons status, India will under the deal not be allowed to reprocess. In contrast, other nuclear weapons states such as France and China will have minimal uranium reprocessing facilities under safeguards or active monitoring. With the IAEA on our shores and rampant proliferation worldwide with the US taking the lead, India would be left with no indigenous R&D, no strategic deterrent and no ability to swiftly recoup in the event of a national emergency.
Equally clear is that the US having tasted blood is unlikely to retreat in haste. With the US President'sdecreasing popularity there is every indication that the Indian government will exercise ?political? will over national interest and agree to possibly the worst deal this country has ever been made a party to. Instead of better access to high-tech items, what is being seen now is a foretaste of the grim future ahead. There are much higher compliance norms for former ?entities? rather than the promised easing of procedures. Ironically, even with such a one-sided ?deal in place, the existing paperwork and end user certifications are likely to be only replaced by a new set of equally restrictive regulations rather than done away altogether. As with almost every promise made to India by the US through the first Joint Statement in 2005, the US Congress has gone well beyond a full retraction and made the Hyde Act a tool for complete control of India'shigh-tech industry.
Without Parliament insisting that a ?deal? with such enormous and far reaching repercussions be ratified by both Houses, the Prime Minister is free to forget his promises to both Houses much as his counterpart has done in the US. Montek Singh Ahluwalia and R. Chidambaram who wouldn'tdream of disagreeing to any US conditions, have the answer to why Sonia-Manmohan are so set on ensuring a Cooloe India. Few are surprised that Manmohan Singh chose to walk away from the excellent terms offered by Russia'sPutin in favour of pleasing the US at this unreasonably high cost to India. Why was the Russian offer of a nuclear deal spurned without even revealing it to the public? Such are the deeds of a compromised and soon-to-be-conquered democracy at the hands of the UPA.
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