Been there, seen that

The Indian Express: Radioactive reactions that don’t have logic at their core have been a sadly consistent feature of nuclear deal politics in India. So it should come as no surprise that the BJP — what the Left says now is less relevant in terms of realpolitik — has decided that the leaked US state department communication on the deal proves India was ambushed by Bush. Ergo, there’s stuff in the state department missive that the Government of India may have known but the people of India didn’t and, therefore, shock, horror, etc. As this newspaper’s report on Thursday made it clear, this is simply not true. The question of American responses to an Indian nuclear test has been addressed by the Hyde Act and the 123 Agreement. The letter doesn’t say anything previously not known, and it also refers to the provision of a one-year notice period following an Indian nuclear test. And let’s note that this document that supposedly damns India also argues that stopping nuclear cooperation with India is not a decision that should be taken lightly. On the question of transfer of sensitive technology, was it ever a secret that America has restrictive policies? Read that fact with the letter’s clear statement that any transfer will happen within the 123 Agreement’s framework or under the exceptions cited by the Hyde Act.

Indeed, other members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which has started its India-related meeting, are as free as the US to individually make technology transfer conditional or to frame post-test responses. What India has been arguing, with justice, is that the NSG as a collective doesn’t ask for conditions. Because then one rule will apply to many countries which may have different responses to India’s decisions. To what extent this goal works out for India will be known after the NSG meeting. But that doesn’t change the fact that the leaked letter is all about US non-proliferation lobbies’ strategy and has nothing to do with revealing a deep, dark secret about the government’s capitulation.

It is necessary to make a broader point here that even the government has sometimes failed to make effectively, perhaps in its anxiousness to respond to political criticism: India can’t negotiate a complicated international agreement and expect everyone to roll over and say take whatever you want, we’ll just watch and applaud. Right now, India is a nuclear pariah, excluded from global nuclear trade, shut out from the club. The rules as they stand imply that India’s status should remain unchanged. The nuclear deal, as non-proliferation hardliners have said, makes an India-sized exception to global rules. India being a free country, politicians are free to say that’s not enough. But they should also then expect their nuclear politics credibility to develop an India-sized hole.

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