?First of all, let us feel proud and fortunate to be an Indian, inheritor of the greatest surviving yet thriving civilisation the world has ever known. On August 15, 1947, after one thousand years of being enslaved and brutalised, we were free again.
In our euphoria, we gave all credit to Indian National Congress (INC). The reality is that our great nation was reborn out of the ashes of the IInd World War (1939-1945) which left Britain and France so weak that they no longer had the power to hold on to their colonies, resulting in freedom to almost all of them including India.
The undeserved trust that Indian people put in the Congress party has been exploited by them and their allies to the hilt ever since. For their selfish gains, they have gone from bad to worse to the worst in the last 10 years of their rule. As historic elections are imminent, Rahul Gandhi and his allies are leaving no stone unturned to hide all their misdeeds and launch baseless, false allegations against the true, selfless patriots of other parties who are trying to save our nation.
The Indian Electorate should not forget for a minute how Congress and its allies have looted India more than all foreign tyrants from Ghori and Taimur to Nadir Shah and the British, how they have tried to completely destroy our unity and communal harmony for selfish gains, how they have turned our country into a third world identity searching nation.
As we recount below, only a few of their vast array of misdeeds, almost everyone will come to one undeniable conclusion; the Congress and its allies have become corrupt to the core and their further continuation would be totally disastrous and poisonous to our beloved Mother India.
Historic corruption
We need not to narrate all the mega scams that have gone during the UPA period. The net loss to the Treasury and the Indian people is five and a half Lakh Crore Rupees. What we could have done with all this money is only a small part of the story. Its net effect on the country is total destruction of all moral fabric and will certainly reduce India to poverty levels unheard even during the times of enslavement.
Complete destruction of the moral fabric of India
Just imagine, how we will teach to our kids to be honest, when, in modern times all Parliament proceedings are being televised in every home. They will see the reality of their “respected” leaders, that these are the biggest actors and suppressors of truth? What morale for character will be left in the rest of society from civil servants to the police? What will be the morale of our Army when they are defending our country in Himalayas in -30°, facing bullets every day, having left their families at home, when they realise that the equipment supplied to them may be low grade because our leaders have skimmed the money and are living a life of luxury? Think of the investors, would they have the willingness or the guts to invest in such a country?
Dividing people on religious, caste and racial lines
India is heading towards disintegration, further sub-division of our country and civil war with blood bath if UPA continues. The only thing that is holding us together so far is responsible Opposition from parties like the BJP and others. If you think, civil wars and humanity is suffering only in countries like Egypt, Syria etc. think again! It happened in India in 1947 during Partition and unless Congress and allies are ousted, we are close to that happening again.
The intentions of Congress are pure evil. They do not care for mother India, they do not care for Hindus, they do not care for Muslims, they do not care for how many innocent lives may be destroyed, and all they care for is counting their ill-gotten money stashed away in Dubai and Swiss Banks.
Considering one of their pet projects wrongly labeled “Communal Violence Bill” that they have been pushing for years. It should be labeled “Official Terror against the silent Majority” bill. In order to understand the true mentality of Congress, we have to look at the bill in its initial form (and not the current one which has been modified as a result of Opposition demands). That original bill is easily the most horrible, evil bill ever in human history.
This bill would be effective going all the way back to 1950. Any person or group belonging to Muslim, Christian or Scheduled Caste and Tribe community can bring unsubstantiated charges anonymously under very vague categories against Hindus or Hindu groups. The Hindu(s) will be presumed guilty and thrown in jail with non bailable warrants and their property seized. If, it is found later that the accuser had brought forward false charges, no action will be taken against them. The government can order all police, military to enforce it and dismiss state governments on unsubstantiated charges.
Side effects of the policies of Congress and its allies
India’s defence in shambles: No decision is taken as to what is best for the country but as to what will fill the coffers of its leaders, there is bribe, graft everywhere. As an example, if US arms are superior but there are tough laws against graft, they would go for inferior arms from Russia and spend hundreds of billions of hard earned money of tax payers on very loose terms because there is too much leeway for pocketing money by both parties.
India’s infrastructure in tatters: Our infrastructure is fairly inferior to the infrastructure of even small countries that got their freedom much later and it is vastly inferior to China. It is the same story, graft is used in the awarding of contracts and much of the money is eaten away before it reached the rightful recipient.
India’s war against terror is in confusion: Again, the decisions of Congress and its allies are not based on what is best for India and all of the citizens but how can they get more votes. They routinely commit acts of treason like welcoming millions of illegal Bangladeshi intruders with ration cards, soft on known terrorists that have killed Indians. Many of its leaders have large illegal hoarded money in Dubai which is controlled by ISI of Pakistan, so they are afraid to take any harsh action against Pakistan. For the fear of losing votes, they are afraid to repeal Article 370 in Kashmir which is practically a give away of our beautiful state to enemies.
And the list goes on, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) are all manipulated by the Congress. There are very few selfless patriots still left in Congress, the comments in this paper do not apply to them. However this is the last opportunity for redemption to them. Unless they jump ship now, they may not have any chances left.
– Anand Sharma
Rethinking the Nuclear Doctrine
The recently released BJP Manifesto promises to study afresh India”s nuclear doctrine, revise and update it to evolve an independent Strategic Nuclear Program, relevant to the challenges of current times, to maintain a credible minimum deterrent that is in tune with the changing geostatic realities. And this resolution is a reflection of the party”s boldness and courage that the NDA regime had demonstrated earlier under the leadership of Atal Behari Vajpayee in 1998 to show the world that, India cannot be brushed aside.
It is not that the Indian scientists had built the nuclear devices overnight during May 1998. We had them with us; but our political leadership didn”t have the courage to admit and announce our possessions. Even in 1974, when Pokharan-I test was conducted under the leadership of the “Iron lady” Indira Gandhi, India preferred to say that it was a Peaceful Nuclear Experiment (PNE) meant to explore civilian uses of such devices which no one believed. As a consequence, India became an apartheid nation and lived in nuclear isolation for the next 3 decades. But this mistake was not repeated in 1998 by the NDA government under Atal Behari Vajpayee and, it paid very good dividends. The US Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott, is believed to have met Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh thirteen to fourteen times in seven countries in three continents, when, the US first attempted to reign in India and then, finally reconciled to simply contain its nuclear ambitions. The US administration that was keen to bring India into its fold even at the cost of compromising their domestic Atomic Energy Act 1954, then finally passed ‘The Hyde Act 2006’ to enable the US President to negotiate with India. Post this, India finally succumbed and agreed to sign the famous 123-Indo US Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement but disregarded several of its vital interests.
An answer to why even after testing its first nuclear device in 1974 Indian political leadership did not show the courage to reveal it in open has found no explanation, even when India had the nuclear capability in 1960s and had been working consistently in this direction all along.
Other than this, the budgetary provisions made for the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has been always been under the direct control of the Prime Ministers and its budget has always been guarded in secrecy. The DAE receives funds generously from the Government irrespective of the nature of political set-up. And even though India made great strides in the use of atomic energy in many areas of science, industry, medicine and agriculture, the major justification for its budget always came from the electrical power generation from nuclear reactors which undoubtedly was, and still is badly needed for India’s industrial growth.
Dr. Homi Bhabha, the founding father of India”s atomic energy, visualised a three stage program to utilize India”s vast reserves of Thorium using the breeder technology as nuclear reactor based power generation is a clean source of energy. Since then, India has been working in this direction although many countries have had reservations about utilising the Thorium cycle to generate energy, as it appears uneconomical and involves complicated and difficult technology.
In 1962, Dr. Bhabha promised a power generation capacity from nuclear reactors going up to 20,000 MW by 1987. After his untimely death, his successor Dr. Vikram Sarabhai thought of even doubling the capacity by the year 2000. Subsequently in 1980s, Dr. Ramanna brought it down to 10,000 MW by the year 2000, but it got escalated to 20,000 MW by his successors. Dr. Anil Kakodkar has gone on record to predict that India would generate nuclear power of 50,000 MW by 2050. And it is believed they all must have predicted these figures as achievable targets with indigenous expertise, knowledge and available nuclear materials. Though except Dr. Bhabha and Dr. Sarabhai all others were well aware that from 1974 onwards India was facing nuclear isolation after the Pokharan-I experiment, over the years the enormous budgets directed in this direction have been fully utilized and the nuclear materials available in India have been mined, processed, used and exploited. And therefore none of the targets were achieved, they appear to be achievable. The question arises. What remains for the BJP now to study in detail, to revise and update the country”s nuclear doctrine?
India shall never attempt or endorse the first strike policy, but to counter countries that have nuclear weapons, India needs a reasonably large and dependable nuclear war-heads and efficient and not-so-long-range delivery systems. Unfortunately, under the 123-Indo-US Agreement of 2008, India has committed to voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing and has indirectly accepted exemption limit of its nuclear test yields of 1 pound TNT and has agreed to face the consequences of violating it as provided under Section 106 read with Section 110(10) of The Hyde Act 2006.
The limit of 1 pound TNT for India for its nuclear zero testing is to be judged on the basis of similar exemption for other countries. Under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) which India has not signed, the USA favoured a limit of 4 lbs of TNT as `zero yield”. It is reported that the UK favoured a `zero” yield at 100 lbs TNT while Russia a level of 10 tons and France a level between 100 to 200 tons of TNT. These differing values for different countries for zero level yields are dependent on their technical capabilities in verifying their computer assisted simulations of actual nuclear explosions. Under the provision of the Hyde Act 2006, the US restriction on India to a one-pound TNT limit is totally unacceptable since it would prevent India from improving its strategic nuclear devices with its presently computer technology and expertise. On August 17, 2006 in his reply to Rajya Sabha our Prime Minster had stated “Our position on this is unambiguous. The US has been intimated that in reference to the nuclear detonation in the India-US Bilateral Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, as a condition for future cooperation, is not acceptable to us. And that India is prepared to go beyond a unilateral voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing as indicated in the July Statement. The same is true of other intrusive non-proliferation benchmarks that are mentioned in the proposed US legislation (The Hyde Act 2006). And that India”s possession and development of nuclear weapons is an integral part of our national security. This will remain so.”
It is sad that the 123-Indo-US Bilateral Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement which was signed two years later in 2008 failed to reflect the above contention.
It is here that a rethinking is warranted by the BJP. Firstly, the policy of unilateral voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing deserves to be revised and then, a cautious negotiation by India with other nations of the world, particularly the NSG countries, to define the zero yield nuclear testing limit for India. It is hard to accept that while scientists in US, UK, Russia or France would require different and much higher zero-yield limits for conducting their nuclear explosions to verify their computer simulation data, Indian scientists are restricted to managing it with only one fourth of it, which is the lowest of them!
There has always been a lack of understanding between the policy makers and the nuclear scientists/technologists in India. But such negotiations are mandatory not only to safely sail India into an equitable nuclear testing regime for establishing a deterrent nuclear arsenal with a credible second strike capacity but, it is also imperative to achieve it without inviting the ire of other nations.
– Dr BB Singh
(The author is a retired scientist from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and presently a practicing lawyer)? ?
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