United we debate

As the endgame on legislating a nuclear exception for India begins in the US, our Parliament has every right to hear from the Government and discuss the agreement’s implementation. The US House of Representatives is expected to vote on Wednesday in approving its version of the bill and the Senate will hopefully follow soon after. The government itself has expressed some concerns about the language of the legislation, especially in the Senate version, which tends to impose some new conditionalities on bilateral nuclear cooperation that go beyond the July 18 statement signed by Manmohan Singh and George W. Bush.

As the two governments strive to limit the final legislation to the four corners of the July 18 statement, the Prime Minister has rightly warned against “blowing out of proportion” some of the legitimate criticisms of the nuclear bills in the US Congress. India’s political class, which has not always resisted the temptation to distort complex national security issues for partisan ends, already shows signs of discord. The BJP, which laid the foundations for a new relationship with the US and the basis for a nuclear reconciliation with Washington, has now chosen to attack the agreement in a display of rank opportunism. The Left is more predictable in its knee-jerk opposition to anything the country does with the US even if it is in supreme national interest.

Amidst their many partisan considerations, MPs should not forget the importance of the agreement. Without the implementation of the nuclear deal, India will remain ineligible for any international cooperation in the field of civilian nuclear energy, which holds so much promise to address India’s burgeoning need for electric power. In international politics, no gain comes for free. In return for a renewal of nuclear cooperation and removal of other restrictions on high technology trade, India has agreed to separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities and place the former under international safeguards. Parliament needs to lend strong bipartisan political support that will strengthen the hands of the government in its negotiations with the US and the international community. Neither nitpicking that loses a sense of the larger context, nor irresponsible rhetoric that reduces everything to a slogan on defending national sovereignty would help the nation’s cause at this juncture in our nuclear diplomacy.

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