The suggested parliamentary debate on the 123 agreement will be among the most important discussions held in Parliament in Independent India. It will be a test for all political parties in terms of their approach to India’s national interest.

The Indian nuclear weapons programme was based on a national consensus and had the support of the two major parties — the Congress and BJP. All Congress prime ministers from Indira Gandhi onwards had nurtured the programme. It was Rajiv Gandhi who ordered the assembly of weapons in March 1989 in the wake of incontrovertible proof of Pakistan having gone ahead with the manufacture of nuclear weapons with Chinese help.

Narasimha Rao operationalised the Indian nuclear weapons programme, and when demitting office, strongly advised his successor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to go ahead and conduct the nuclear test. Though the test could not be conducted in 1996, Vajpayee carried it out it in May 1998. Some second rung Congress leaders protested against the test, but Rao and Manmohan Singh did not criticise the tests. National interest won over party interests.

The Shakti tests were the starting point for India to be taken seriously by the international community. India began to be considered as one of the potential balancers of power in the world. The NDA government embarked on a policy of engaging all major powers and particularly the US which Prime Minister Vajpayee called India’s ‘natural ally’. The NDA government initiated a dialogue with the US on the next steps in strategic partnership (NSSP), the core programme of which was freeing India from the technology apartheid. The NDA policy in regard to the US and other major powers of the world was continued by the UPA government. The result is the present 123 agreement which is to be operationalised.

... contd.