That a number of leading left liberal activists in the country, who oppose the Indo-US nuclear deal in the name of “anti-imperialism”, have signed onto an American sponsored petition urging the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group to scuttle India’s bid to regain full international access to civilian atomic energy should not come as a surprise. The Indian elite have a long tradition of taking domestic quarrels abroad and undermining the nation at crucial moments. Yet, our plain folk would want to know why these worthies have chosen to align with die-hard Western opponents of India’s nuclear liberation rather than make their arguments at home. After all, the domestic debate over the nuclear deal during the last two years has been one of the most expansive and transparent India has ever seen.

These Indian petitioners in the Western chancelleries would justify their appeal in the name of their fearless internationalism and opposition to national chauvinism. Their demands on the NSG, however, tell a different story. At a time when the Communists at home have raised questions about India’s freedom to test nuclear weapons under the Indo-US deal, their anti-imperialist friends are asking the NSG to make sure that in the event of such a test all cooperation with India must be cut off. While the CPM is attacking the 2006 Hyde Act, the US law facilitating nuclear cooperation with India, for limiting the sale of reprocessing and enrichment technologies to India, its comrades from the so-called independent left are demanding that the NSG impose a collective bar against cooperation with India in these sensitive areas. While our Communists oppose the CTBT and the FMCT as discriminatory treaties, their fellow-travellers are urging the international community to impose these very treaties on India.

... contd.