India’s long overdue integration into the global nuclear order.

After all, this is not the first time that ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, will be walking into a political minefield. On the eve of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq in March 2003, he demonstrated rare political courage to challenge the public rationale behind the Bush administration’s misadventure. In the critical testimonies before the United

Nations Security Council during 2002 and 2003, he argued that the available evidence was insufficient to prove that Saddam Hussein was reviving Iraq’s nuclear weapons programme. His assessments provided the basis for the majority of the UNSC to reject the causus belli offered by the United States against Saddam Hussein’s regime.

ElBaradei got into serious trouble for his integrity and professionalism, when the US tried to prevent him from getting a third term at the helm of the IAEA in 2005. Given the widespread support to his candidature for a rare third term as the head of an international agency, the Bush administration had to swallow its pride and allow his unanimous re-election.

More recently, ElBaradei found himself at odds with the US once again when he publicly counselled against imposing new sanctions on Iran and pointed to the prospect of greater cooperation between Tehran and the IAEA. The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, responded angrily by saying that the IAEA should not meddle in the ‘business of diplomacy’ and limit itself to technical judgments.

When Nicholas Sarkozy, the French president, talked about going to war to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, ElBaradei dismissed it as just ‘hype’.

Before you jump to the conclusion that ElBaradei is some kind of an ‘anti-imperialist’ crusader and a near victim of US hegemony, think again. In July 2005, when President George W. Bush signed the declaration on the civilian nuclear initiative with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, ElBaradei was among the first international leaders to welcome it.

Coming from the very heart of the global non-proliferation system, the IAEA, ElBaradei’s enthusiasm has been critical in mobilising international support for the Indo-US nuclear deal. For ElBaradei, it was not a question being ‘anti’ or ‘pro’ Washington on nuclear issues. As on Iraq and so on India, ElBaradei has chosen to go by the merits of the issue at hand rather than considerations of political correctness of the moment.

After serving nearly two decades in the Egyptian foreign service,

ElBaradei moved to the IAEA in 1984, served it in different capacities and has headed it since the end of 1997. He is no ordinary civil servant. With a doctorate in law from New York University and immense experience in dealing with nuclear issues, ElBaradei has helped shape the international debates on non-proliferation at the turn of the century.

In the words of Nobel Committee, ElBaradei “has stood out as an unafraid advocate of new measures to strengthen” the non-proliferation regime. He was not doing a political favour to either Washington or New Delhi in backing the civil nuclear initiative. He had the courage of conviction to deliver one of the best intellectual defences of the nuclear deal in front of a global gathering of the non-proliferation community in Washington in the autumn of 2005.

Addressing the opponents of the deal in the West, who are as determined as our communists to wreck New Delhi’s prospects for civilian energy cooperation, ElBaradei said, “India is one-sixth of the world — one billion people. I’d like to make sure that they are partners in the area of (nuclear) safety, security and non-proliferation.” Whether New Delhi is a “de jure or de facto” nuclear weapon power is “totally irrelevant”, ElBaradei said, as he underscored the reality of Indian nuclear weapons and the importance of integrating India into the global nuclear order on practical terms.

ElBaradei’s arguments on the Indo-US nuclear deal emphasise the one significant reality that the Indian communists are unable or unwilling to see. It is about ending India’s uncomfortable and anomalous standing in the global nuclear order since New Delhi conducted its first atomic test in 1974. Since then India has struggled to marry its nuclear security and energy demands with the rules of the non-proliferation regime.

With India poised to become part of the global nuclear mainstream, it is the Left that stands in the way. Our communists, either out of extraordinary ignorance or deliberate malevolence, have abandoned the Indian legacy of responsible multilateralism and mobilising science or national development and global peace.

It is precisely that spirit of scientific internationalism that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would want to recapture in his talks with ElBaradei. Looking beyond the immediate question of a safeguards agreement with the IAEA, the two learned doctors need to focus on the contributions India can make in promoting safe worldwide use of nuclear energy, preventing further proliferation of nuclear weapons and accelerating the movement towards universal nuclear disarmament.

These were the very goals that India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the founder of India’s nuclear programme, Homi Bhabha, advocated passionately in the 1950s and are now being pursued by the IAEA and ElBaradei.

The writer is a professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore