Sudheendra Kulkarni in The Indian Express:
“Several decades from now, history will remember Atal Behari Vajpayee as the prime minister who took the bull by the horns and announced India’s emergence as a nuclear weapons power by ordering nuclear tests in May 1998…. Ask any Indian living abroad, and they will tell you that India going nuclear was what compelled the world, especially the West, to start viewing India with greater respect. The “Can Do” spirit, or the “Hum kisise kum nahin” spirit, that we now see among Indians in business and other spheres of life was, to a significant extent, made possible by the “Can Do” decision that Vajpayee took within two months of assuming office in 1998.
“Now ask yourselves how history would view Dr Manmohan Singh’s adventurism on the Indo-US nuclear deal…. Would India in 2020 or 2030 recall with pride that Dr Singh was the prime minister who ended India’s “nuclear apartheid” and heralded India’s “nuclear renaissance”?… History will also put to the test Dr Singh’s claim about ending India’s “nuclear apartheid” since the Indo-US nuclear deal is, self-evidently, less about liberating India from its chronic energy needs and more about bringing India within the US-dictated global non-proliferation regime.”
Read the full column: Applying the posterity test
Also read: Manmohan Singh: good, bad, sad?
Title would have been more apt if it was “Nuclear Vajpayee vs UNCLEAR Manmohan”
The whole write up is based on Mr Kulkarni’s presumption that the West ( as if it were something out of Tolkein) views India with respect or even greater respect!!! Well delusions are defined as illogical belief systems after all.
And to make matter worse, Manmohan Singh has been lying to the nation and to his Left allies at every move. George Fernandes (although in bad taste) rightly said that Manmohan deserves to be shot for treason.
India deserves a better leader than one ready to sell his country for 15 minutes of media fame and a probable footnote in history.
Manmohan Singh will remembered by Indians, as the man who almost sold out the nuclear deterrence capability of the nation to the west. But for the commie opposition to this deal, it would have become a reality by now. Thanks to the commies, they have done us and their master China a big favor :)
Ninja, if anyone should be shot, it should be the commies
The first Prime Minister Nehru knew that India lost all its wars against invaders because it lacked uptodate weapons and not bravery. So he pretended to develop nuclear energy while developing nuclear weapon secretly. So the credit should go to Nehru. Indira Gandhi did some bragging to take credit. Vajapeyi did extension work. But Mr. Singh has been selling India since he was a minister with PVN.
Sudheendra Kulkarni has shown that he isn’t above partisan politics; something he would like us to believe going by his writing. With that in mind, his tone in the IE column sounds patronizing which makes it comical.
One can feign self-righteousness for only so long. The nuclear deal is a good one for India. The UPA knows it and wants it. The NDA knows it but doesn’t want it. The Left doesn’t know it and doesn’t want it. That makes it two honest positions out of three. What a shame.
I agree with GK3S and I cannot imagine how BJP would have got a better deal! All said and done the commies are known to kowtow to China any way and instead of supporting Congress on the nuclear deal BJP has been raising unnecessary and meaningless issues. For instance, they could have insisted Hyde Act be omitted and then they would vote for it. Instead even Arun Shouries wrote pages and pages of dense BS in Indian Express outlining how the deal is bad for India. Sure may be but what about the IFS and IAS types who were involved in the deal!! they were virtually unchanged during NDA into UPA regime! Rather than work for the good of the nation I am sorry to say that BJP have joined the Commies in selling India down the river! The same clown ‘Oddvani’ is such a curious specimen because he claimed he had no knowledge of Kandahar Terrorist repatriation and he is very vocal opponent to the nuclear deal. Rest of you bloggers can you tell me why the deal is a bad one? Thanks.
The same Oddvani also could not nail Musharaff on Dawood Ibrahim’s presence in Pakistan instead he blamed the US!!
Doddi Buddi,
I read Arun Shouries BS too. Incidentally, I didnt find them to be BS. Pray tell me what part of the article wasnt correct. I am keen to hear.
Sudheendra Kulkarani has got his FACTS WRONG.
It was Indira Gandhi (and not Vajpayee as claimed) who took the bull by the horns and announced India’s emergence as a nuclear weapons state in the 1970s.
Indira Gandhi was the first PM to undertake nuclear tests at Pokhran. Full marks to Congress for showign the world what we are capable of way back in the 70s!
What Indira Gandhi did 20 years back, was done by BJP in the late nineties.
The difference is BJP tom toms about its tests, Congress does not. So everybody is brainwashed by BJPs spin doctors into believing that BJP was the party which gave India nuclear status!
On the contrary, BJP will be remembered as the party (along with the left) which stopped INDIA from emerging as a major nuclear power, by opposing the India-US nuclear deal
Doddi Buddi,
>> Rest of you bloggers can you tell me why the deal is a bad one?
Why did India (including several congress govts) not sign the NPT or CTBT all this while? This nuclear deal effectively means signing the NPT and CTBT and worse. Even signing the CTBT would have meant India adhering to a world convention. This deal makes US, the guardian of the errant student (india) in the school of nuclear apartheid and supplies (namely IAEA and NSG).
The only benefit that comes from this deal is uranium supplies for our immediate needs. Every other benefit is just kite flying. A better government (meaning a BJP one) can get the nuclear reactors and dual-use technologies thru sustained negotiations. Imagine what we have achieved in 10 years since Pokharan 1998.
Do you believe BJP could not have got a similar deal in say 2003? Vajpayee of all people can be trusted to not sell his countries strategic interests for trivial short term benefits and imaginary long term ones.
JustLikeThat!
Arun Shourie wrote such BS I had to rub my eyes many times in disbelief. If you have an iota of commonsense how about visualizing the role of bureaucracy here? It was the same set of officials who negotiated the deal and Arun writes as if they were of no consequence!! Sure the Nuclear Deal is not perfect but that shouldn’t make us blind to the fact that we have start somewhere in the short term and get what we want in the long term. Thanks to dudes like you we have <$5.00 costing uP exporters threatened with jail sentences in the US for exporting illegal technology!! Wake up man! I support BJP but I am not an idiot!
Tantric ‘Nanja’
What is this? Some form of new nuclear kite flying?!! You can sign everything you want and still test whenever you sense the need. That’s what China did and India can do the same! Sure BJP can sustain a negotiation that can last for 100 years and within five years you will have the Chinese arming the Pakis with the latest in nuclear technology!! Is that what you want? Sure the Kangress is having power rather enjoying power without responsibility. In fact when the talks about nuclear deal started all BJP had to do was praise the deal sky high and take credit. Instead thanks to Oddvani and a bundh of BJP idiots we lost everything we negotiated for:(
Doddi Buddi,
Is that all you have to offer to substantiate your charges against Arun Shourie?
I agree with WrongFact.
It was Mrs. Indira Gandhi who made us proud as a nation by going for the nuclear tests in 70s.
The world sat up and took notice of India because of Congress not because of BJP!
Sudheendhra kulkarni is either ignorant of Indira Gandhi’s nuclear tests or he is resorting to blatant lies!
doddibuddi, dont talk like a daDDa.
“…and within five years you will have the Chinese arming the Pakis with the latest in nuclear technology!! Is that what you want?”
what non-sense? as if China will not help Pakistan with defense things otherwise. We also need to aware of China’s direct threat. This government is so numb and dumb that since January 2008 alone, more than 400 intrusions from China has taken place, the latest being mid-last week in Sikkim to the extent of 1 km.
While BJP opposes only to a part of 123 agreement, it is the Left that is opposing any sort of strategic alliance with the US. Even their father-land China has a nuclear agreement with the US. Why cant the govenrment address Advani’s concerns and take their support on the deal rather than just beating the bush?
Pragmatic,
I agree with you. But in the larger national interest BJP should have supported the deal more robustly from day one. Instead because of the clown Oddvani they behaved most irresponsibly and started splitting hairs in the nuances. We all know why…
Anon,
Yes surprisingly Arun was writing as if BJP were a separate species when it came to deal making. Sure all deals come with strings attached but what about the effing bureaucracy that was responsible for conclusing the deal? It was the same set of offcials surely you can see that…can’t you? Now tell me how BJP alone could have got a better deal!!
DB,
It is not the same set of beaurocrats during NDA and UPA. The foriegn secretary at the time of NDA was different from the one during UPA. Just google it and you will know. Even Anil Kakodkar, who vehemently opposed the deal was arm twisted to agree to the deal. Read more about the demerits of the deal in Brahma Chellany’s/Bharat Karnads articles.
Brahma/Bharat do not have any political affiliation and shoud be in the know of the things as they stand. They both are fellow’s of a delhi based strategic analysis outfit.
Regards,
Mayura
Mayura,
Apart from the foreign secretary it was Ronen Sen and his team that shepherded the deal right? Anil K was arm twisted alright but when was given the larger picture I am sure he agreed. Like I said earlier we have to start somewhere and get the latest technology. We cannot be like a North Korea. Look our economy is fully integrated into the World today and even China is more forward looking. We cannot forever live in Socialist denial like we did in 70s and early 80s! Sure we can continue to find holes and the same chappies Brahma and Bharat will find cons even with the Perfect Deal. My point is take what you get today and negotiate later. That is where I fault the BJP and Arun.
DB,
You’re wrong this time, my friend. Arun Shourie’s argument was a masterpiece.
Still I support Manmohan Singh’s position. There’s a famous sloka in the Mahabharata (adi parva) which goes, “Tyajet ekam kulasyaarthe graamasyaarthe kulam tyajet/ Graamam Janapadasyaarthe Aatmaarthe Prithveem Tyajet.”
To obtain the larger good, small sacrifices/detachments need to be practiced in an iterative fashion. In the West, John Dewey built an entire philosophy around that notion — he called it “pragmatism.”
Mysore Peshva,
You can call me John DeeBee!
That is exactly what I am practicing–it is called Nuclear Pragmatism, Chinese style!! Take what you get first and then “Slowly slowly catchee monkey!”
You can continue to waffle around why the deal is not good because you found some issues that are not good but that is an ideal situation. All I am saying is it was the same team of bureaucrats who were dealing with the US government. True we dug a mountain and we found a Nuclear rat but I still cannot understand how Arun Shourie can say that we bungled it so badly! Forget for the moment what papers like HIndustan Times argued for the deal with inane stats…
Are we on the same planet here?!! Remember the Pressler Amendment? According to this one Pakistan should never have got any weapons for some time but the US sought a way out to dodge this seemingly insurmountable problem whenever it wanted to supply weapons to Pakistan. So going by Arun’s argument poor Jaswant SIngh spent a lot of jet fuel travelling between Delhi and Washington holding talks with Strobe Albott and wasted tax payer’s money when NDA was ruling India! Also, why didn’t Arun write why this agreement with the US was a waste of time then? Can you explain? Instead of taking the extreme nuanced position on the Nuclear Deal why cannot the BJP trumpet the fact that they will work together in the cause of National Interest??!!
Although I regard MMS as a weak PM I don’t think that he is acting on behalf of US interests.
Chintaka, Wrongfact, Thinksir… all of you come here separately together…
BJP’s opposition to the deal is only at the political level not at the technical level. Every political party’s aim is to capture power. BJP has found an opportunity in this deal to pull the government. Believe me BJP if it comes to power will make a big noise about some small changes in the deal and will sign.
It is just taking political advantage now and why not, it is a political party. Congress has done this and has been doing like this for a long time both at the central and state level.
Had the government spent half the time and energy to convince the BJP, they would have supported the deal. That would have been magnanimous on the part of the congress for having taken the opposition into confidence. Its ego’s of political parties (People) that killing us today.
Myshanks
National interest should come before political interest.
Rama
What do you mean we should come separately, together?
I already made my observations about FACTS concerning the nuclear deal.
Here it is again, if u wish to see it.
Sudheendra Kulkarani has got his FACTS WRONG.
It was Indira Gandhi (and not Vajpayee as claimed) who took the bull by the horns and announced India’s emergence as a nuclear weapons state in the 1970s.
Indira Gandhi was the first PM to undertake nuclear tests at Pokhran. Full marks to Congress for showign the world what we are capable of way back in the 70s!
What Indira Gandhi did 20 years back, was done by BJP in the late nineties.
The difference is BJP tom toms about its tests, Congress does not. So everybody is brainwashed by BJPs spin doctors into believing that BJP was the party which gave India nuclear status!
On the contrary, BJP will be remembered as the party (along with the left) which stopped INDIA from emerging as a major nuclear power, by opposing the India-US nuclear deal
Agree with DBs point on getting smaller concessions later and the Pressler ammendment and the way it was handled by the US.
I believe in a shrinking world, hypothetical concerns are not good diplomacy.
BJP could have helped. But in the present situation, it is the UPA which has to have an open minded approach. UPA has to take the first step.
Advaith
You never seem to give congress its due:
Did not Indira Gandhi first conduct nuclear test? when BJP was still in its knickers, Congress had taken India on to the worldstage.
You have the humility to accept facts?
All those who speak of Manmohan Singh “selling the country” are fools. I am *NOT* a congress supporter. Neither do I like/condone everything the BJP does. But this nuclear deal is certainly something that will only benifit us. All this “selling the country” stuff which I have been reading in a few blogs is the handiwork of a bunch of nitwits who wouldn’t have even a minute understanding of what precisely the nuclear deal involves.