I have heard ideological, electoral, religious, operational and communal arguments why India should not sign the nuclear deal but have not heard a single scientific reason why it shouldn’t be signed. This is really why I think that the Indo-US nuclear deal should be signed. The Left got one chance to be close to the power at the Centre and in my opinion, they ruined it. After this debacle, I’m not sure how the Left plans to get itself elected at the centre.
On the other end of the spectrum, the BJP stands against this deal too. But, their arguments are atleast more practical. They request for a discussion on the floor of the house about clarifying certain points with regards to the deal. But they too have failed as an Opposition party in bringing out the scientific opposition to the deal.
The US officials added their words in and the Indian media played up each and every one of their comments. That just made it more difficult for the Indian Government to go ahead with the deal. It’s made it so difficult that they will probably loose their majority in the floor of the House.
I really can’t understand why the BJP wants to come to power now. It’s a really bad time to be a Minister. Everything is going wrong. The oil prices are rising, agitations are swelling up everywhere, inflation is really high and one can only imagine the life in rural India. So, they should probably let things cool down a little before looking for power. But, I guess their strategy is to hit the Government when it as its weakest. It remained largely silent during its tenure as opposition party with the Left slowly bringing the Government to this stage and then the BJP joined in when the Government was at its weakest. The Left now are shirking away from the responsibility of killing the Government and the Right is only happy to take over.
I think the Government should throw away all caution, sign the deal, raise the oil prices even more and let a people who have been living in luxury for more than 10 years come to Earth with a thud. It’s really what’s needed and what will bring people to their senses. They can then go away happy that in the long term the country will benefit and will actually thank this Government for the wake up call. Now, we are just in a dream.
If they are voted out this year, let the Congress play the role of an active Opposition and project the next leader – the next Prime Minister as an Opposition leader and help the country understand the role of the true Opposition party.
Well, that’s all I have to say, I am really sure that no one is going to follow this advice, but what the heck, it’s out of my system at least.
Parallel Spirals 