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Thursday, Nov 15, 2007
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MPs urged to appreciate ‘significance’ of nuclear deal

Special Correspondent

Delay might complicate India’s position: former officials

“India is more vulnerable to foreign pressures without this agreement”
India’s isolation from civil nuclear commerce has led to “crippling constraints”

NEW DELHI: On the eve of the winter session of Parliament, which is scheduled to discuss the nuclear deal, former government security managers have appealed to parliamentarians to understand the “significance” of the India-U.S. agreement.

Seeking to allay the apprehensions related to the deal, they disputed the notion that it binds India not to test and ‘caps’ the country’s nuclear arsenal.

As for the disquiet over getting tied to a particular foreign power, they feel India is more vulnerable to foreign pressures without this agreement. “International relationships are shaped by strength; the stronger you are the greater the freedom of action. This agreement should be viewed as an instrument for making us [realise] that [the] stronger power counts more and more in the world and can do more for its people,” observes the open letter to Members of Parliament signed by former scientists, former military chiefs, civil servants and diplomats, all of whom were directly involved in security management.

“Several of us, therefore, decided to address an appeal to our MPs that when they debate the agreement, they consider it in its most meaningful perspective. We have no political affiliations; we hope that those who do will not let that be a bar to a non-partisan approach.” Conceding that the deal might not be perfect, they pointed out that all international agreements require a movement away from first preferences. “All too often in our history we have suffered by insisting on the ideally desirable and rejecting what is attainable. The key questions are: can we do better without the agreement, or, can we get a better one?”

The agreement, they feel, has given India as much as it has because of a combination of circumstances which might not recur. A delay might allow the emergence of forces that will complicate India’s position.

The real issue

Arguing against the perception that the pact could force India to forego its right to test, the letter says that even under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, a country can opt out and conduct a test if it feels that it is vital to its security. “Nothing in the India-U.S. agreement prevents us from doing likewise. The real issue is facing the consequences, which is entirely a matter, of our self-confidence. The international community has long sought to stop our testing by threatening penalties. We faced those when we thought necessary; we can do so again. The point of relevance is that if we ever decide to end our unilateral moratorium on testing, the international reactions can be no worse if we complete this deal than if we forego it.”

On the likelihood of India’s nuclear weapon making capability being capped, they said the country had resolved to acquire only a credible minimum deterrence. India is free under the agreement, as it is without it, to change that doctrine and produce more weapons. “The Prime Minister has clearly stated that we cannot agree to fissile-material cut-off unless they allow for our security concerns,” they felt.

India’s isolation from the global civil nuclear commerce has led to “crippling constraints” on the acquisition of dual-use technologies. The denial has allowed some “self-selected” powers to forge ahead of India. “Existing constraints can only be removed through an agreement with those who impose them, which this accord makes possible. What is formally a bilateral agreement between us and the U.S. is actually the basis for agreement with the international community.”

Among the signatories are Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh; the former service chiefs, Air Chief Marshal O.P. Mehra, Gen. V.N. Sharma, Gen. V.P. Malik, Admiral Ram Tahliani and Admiral Madhvendra Singh; scientists M.R. Srinivasan, Kasturirangan, Roddam Narsimha, R. Rajaraman and K. Santhanam; former bureaucrats B.G. Deshmukh, K. Subrahmanyam, Abid Hussain, N.N.Vohra, Naresh Chandra and Narendra Sisodia, and former diplomats M. K. Rasgotra, K.S. Bajpai, K. Raghunath, Lalit Mansingh, S.K. Lambah and Arundhati Ghose.

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