The 123 Agreement between two sovereign nations — India and the United States of America — has been hogging the headlines of late. Even before a discussion in Parliament, parties have hardened their positions. A responsible national political party has been seen to stall the proceedings in Parliament in a manner not witnessed in the House before. Slogan shouting and use of unsavoury epithets in the course of Prime Minister’s statement on the 123 Agreement, drowning his speech in the din of the House, was yet another first in the history of Parliament. Political parties are vying with each other in upping the ante. Instead of a debate and a meaningful discussion, we have witnessed only obfuscation of issues. The BJP has still not reconciled itself to the rejection of the “India Shining” campaign in the last Lok Sabha polls in 2004. Members of Parliament in the course of a debate bring to the table serious issues, which need to be addressed. Through such debates, people are informed, and the media is expected to play a constructive role as a vehicle of communication. What we see in Parliament is a denigration of the foundations of our democratic polity, in which debate and discourse allow for the meetings of minds and the reconciliation of seemingly irreconcilable positions. In the absence of a discussion in Parliament, it becomes necessary to inform people through the media.

The 123 Agreement is an agreement under section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act, 1954. By virtue of this legislation, the United States of America, a sovereign state possessing nuclear weapons, seeks to commit non-nuclear weapon states to a nuclear weapons non-proliferation regime. The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968 commits States to non-proliferation. Three sovereign independent states have not signed the NPT so far, India, Pakistan and Israel. India’s position has always been that the NPT has perpetuated nuclear apartheid by nuclear states with a global nuclear order discriminating between states possessing nuclear weapons and those which do not. Though India propagated the NPT, India refused to sign it by acquiescing to such a discriminatory regime.

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