Eleven & very lonely: Indian signatories who want NSG to kill India’s n-deal

Meet the groups from India who have signed the petition to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to kill the Indo-US nuclear deal.

The NSG begins its meeting in Vienna tomorrow.

Nine organizations from India are signatories to the petition, piloted by the Washington DC-based Arms Control Association (ACA). The only two individuals who have signed it are Praful Bidwai (political commentator and author) and Achin Vanaik (professor of international relations in Delhi University). Both are known for their strong advocacy on nuclear non-proliferation.

Ironically, in the debate in the House over the nuclear deal, no political party echoed their stand.

Except for one Indian group, eight of them do not have any website which talks about their credentials, their philosophy or their mission statement.

The Indian Express spoke to six of the nine groups to ask why they signed a petition which essentially asks India to sign the NPT and CTBT — which have been widely considered to be “discriminatory” in nature by the Government and political parties sweeping across the spectrum from the Left to the BJP, and the Congress.

Captain J Rama Rao, who heads the Hyderabad-based Forum for Sustainable Development, said, “I believe that India should not sign the NPT or CTBT.” Then why did he sign the petition which argued just the opposite? “I don’t remember that bit in the petition,” he said. Incidentally, Rao is also convenor of another group, Movement against Uranium Projects, which is also a signatory to the petition.

Santanu Chacraverti, secretary of the Kolkata-based Society for Direct Initiative for Social and Health Action, was candid, “One has to sign these petitions under peer pressure...we were told that if we put our organisation’s name on it, it will carry some weight...this petition was circulated by e-mail.”

But he defended his position and argued for India signing the NPT and CTBT saying that, “there is an element of discrimination” in everything but we should follow certain rules or else, the world will become chaotic.

... contd.