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PM must be firm on nuclear deal

I read H.K. DUA’s front-page editorial, “India must not go back on nuclear deal” (June 20). President Bush, as a liberal statesman, struck the civil nuclear deal with India whatever his failings in the Iraq misadventure. For India, which despite repeated pious discourses, failed to tap solar and wind-mill power and fickleness of the hydro-electric projects, with rivers going dry, the said deal opened up unexpected green pastures and vistas. The ongoing few civil nuclear installations were limping due to paucity of uranium. Before the deal could take of, India was required to sort out matters with the IAEA, the NSG and the intermediary hurdles.

The UPA government is surviving on the Left support for whom the US is a senseless anathema. The said bloc opposes the deal though it is much better in terms than the one offered to China years back.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been going round the mulberry bush with the Leftists to no end with sterile parleys. He should adopt a firm stance.

If he finds the Left’s obstinacy unrelenting and the deal couldn’t be operationalised, he should go to the people through a referendum.

V.I.K. SHARMA, Jalandhar

II

Is it not the right time for UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi to tame her allies and show enough courage to take on the Left leaders who are attacking the Prime Minister on the deal? When the communists are not ready to see reason, then why shouldn’t the Congress finally decide to send the safeguards agreement to the IAEA and, if necessary, go to the electorate?

Dr Manmohan Singh wants to solve the country’s energy problem by signing the nuclear deal. But if there is no breakthrough, he won’t be able to attend the G-8 meeting on July 8. His political and moral authority will be undermined if the Centre doesn’t go ahead with the deal.

Attempts to communalise the issue about the Muslim vote bank are unfortunate. People are unable to know how the deal could anguish Muslim voters. Surely, the deal exposes the masks of our political leaders.

BIDYUT KUMAR CHATTERJEE, Faridabad

III

The Left is doing a historic service to the nation by blocking the deal. In the first 15 years of Independence, Nehru showed greater faith in the UN than his colleague Sardar Patel and took the Kashmir issue to the UN. Later, he recognised Tibet as part of China and signed the Panchsheel accord. About 90,000 sq. kms of Indian territory is annexed by China. Issues remain unresolved. Indira Gandhi took the tough decision of depending on Indian farmers and he cancelled the PL 480 agreement with the US.

The UPA government should learn from history, particularly from Indira Gandhi’s actions against the US. But as Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishan wrote in his book, “We learn one lesson from history. It is that we do not learn from it”’. The Indo-US nuclear deal will kill the independence of our progress in the nuclear field. The Congress should ask itself — why should the US be interested in making India stronger? The deal will make the US stronger vis-a-vis India.

C.K. SHARMA, Gurgaon

IV

The nuclear deal is in a crucial stage. It is almost written off to the comfort of the BJP and the CPM — for the former to blow her trumpet as a victory to usurp political vendetta and sell-off of principles and for the latter a sigh of relief championing on the China wall.

The CPM’s visceral opposition is understandably less for the deal than the ideological stand-off without merit. It will be most willing if India opts for a similar deal with China, a country menacingly claiming Arunachal Pradesh and part of Sikkim.

B.M. SINGH, Brockville (Canada)