The morning after the UPA Government won the trust vote in Parliament in a fraudulent manner by enacting the “cash-for-votes” scandal on July 22, the streets of Delhi were full of banners hailing the Congress president and the Prime Minister for their “historic” achievement. The message that was sought to be conveyed was that the duo had staked the very survival of the Government for the sake of the Indo-US nuclear cooperation deal. The subtext of the message was that nuclear power would soon light up every Indian home. Obviously, the Congress leadership has concluded that “Nuclear Bijlee for All” would be a sure-to-click slogan in the party’s campaign for the parliamentary elections.

Accordingly, the party even organised training classes for its leaders and workers on what the nuclear deal is all about and how it is good for the country. The thrust of the party’s communication should be on nuclear power, everyone was clearly instructed. Party workers were reportedly told: son’t get into “technicalities” such as when the nuclear plants would be built, how much power they would generate by 2020 or 2030 or 2040, what percentage of India’s electricity needs would be met by nuclear power (whose share currently stands at a mere 3 per cent of the total) even after 30 years, etc. And, with imported plants and imported fuel, certainly don’t get into any discussion on the cost of nuclear power for the consumer.

Still, there was the unavoidable question about whether the nuclear deal would result in India’s nuclear nasbandi by disabling our country from conducting any further tests and thereby enhancing our atomic arsenal when national security considerations demanded such a step in the future. After all, the entire debate on the Hyde Act passed by the US Congress had focused principally on this question. There were—and continue to be—many sceptics within the Congress party harbouring serious concerns over this issue. Hasn’t the US retained the right to terminate nuclear cooperation and take punitive action if India conducted a fresh nuclear test? Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, addressing this concern in a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, came out with a peculiar formulation: “We have the right to test, the US has the right to react.”

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