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When realism dawns

The announcement of a committee to look into some specific aspects of the India-United States nuclear agreement that marks the end of the standoff between the Congress and the Left is a welcome development that represents a victory for political realism and moderation. The operationalisation of the deal will “take into account the committee’s findings,” the obvious implication being that the government will await the committee’s conclusions before o perationalising it. The nuclear deal that culminated in the agreed text of the 123 Agreement was itself a compromise reached after hard negotiations, and the government held it up as a breakthrough that would enable India to gain access to the international nuclear market and develop nuclear energy at a much faster rate than domestic resources, including fuel, would permit. This newspaper endorsed the 123 Agreement as just and honourable with a few caveats, the principal one being that it should not lead to a further erosion of India’s external independence. Yet the agreement ran into trouble with both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left that provides the crucial support to the United Progressive Alliance Government in Parliament. The Left raised strong objections to some aspects, mainly the implications of the Hyde Act, the possibility of the country being drawn into a closer military and strategic alliance with the U.S., and the loss of external autonomy with an increased American influence on foreign policy making. To have brushed aside these objections imperiously and moved ahead to enter into a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency would have been to behave like a majority government that it is not, and defied the logic of running a minority government dependent on the support of the Left. Such a course would have imperilled the government itself and ensured the burial of the nuclear deal that it has worked for so long and hard.

The constitution of a specific mechanism means that there would not be an indefinite postponement that would kill the deal, while on the other hand the government will not proceed to operationalise the deal till the Left’s concerns are addressed. Among the committee’s tasks would be to look at some of the problematic provisions of the Hyde Act that lay down policy directives and their implications for the 123 Agreement and self-reliance and the implications of the nuclear agreement on foreign policy and security cooperation. There is no guarantee that the differences will be resolved in the committee but it would have been a monumental folly not to have even made a serious attempt. Side by side, it is important that the government addresses the concerns voiced by the BJP over the possible constraints to the development of the strategic option and over the consequences of a nuclear test. There being no real hurry to finalise the deal, the government should in the remaining weeks and months work seriously to build as broad a consensus as possible on an issue of such critical importance to the country’s long term interests.

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