Nuclear Confidence: it’s all about Money, Mohan and Sin
Even when the slave gets sold off against his will, he has the right to cry out: ‘it is inhuman and outrageous and it is against my will; it is against my will’. This is what my Nation does now. Sorry, My Land, it’s all about Money, Mohan and Sin.
An emerging economy like India cannot afford to be going without meeting its surging energy demands. And as days go by, the need for finding energy sources is mounting to alarming proportions. It is a fact that we cannot do without energy of some kind. Else, how are we going to feed the population, how are we going to keep the wheels of development rolling, how are we going to be a developed nation in the next decade at least? Is there any other way out to this burgeoning power-crunch? Can a power hungry nation ever be people-and-progress friendly? An emphatic no is the answer to the last question.
Yes, it all sounds reasonable to an ordinary voter. But there are millions of voters in the subcontinent who are not ready to buy such a chain of questions. They are a thinking lot who feel that the much hyped nuclear deal with the US is nothing short of outright sell off. For, this nation needs sustainable and affordable power, in the sense that we cannot offer to sell Hamburgers to a populace that is vying hard to afford a sandwich made of bread and butter.
It is reported that a unit of nuclear electricity would cost Rs. 15/- or so, and by the time this deal comes to produce energy, the price per unit is bound to appreciate and go far beyond the reach of any industry or individual. Then, we cannot say that it is so costly and we are unable to afford it. This situation would raise the same questions that we had found in the beginning of this article.
· How are we going to feed the population in the long run?
· How are we going to keep the wheels of development rolling?
· How are we going to be a developed nation in the next decade at least?
· Can we afford ourselves to be called a developing nation all the ages to come?
· Is there any other way out to this burgeoning power-crunch that keeps the gears of the economy grinding to halts as and when monsoon fails to last long enough or summer lasts a little longer than usual?
· Can a power-hungry nation ever be people-and-progress-friendly?
And if our Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh (some people have started calling him Moneymohan Singh after his successful annexing of a few MPs to his stable during the last round of nuclear sell off deal that went in our very Lok Sabha a couple of weeks ago) has a little qualms about the concerns raised by a sizeable number of the population, it is his responsibility to prove that he was dealing with the US solely for the greater interest of the nation. And the fears and concerns, which his own MPs and those horse-traded ones had been raising for nearly a couple of years or so, are unfounded.
The bales of currency, which got involved in the process of the confidence motion prior to the last leg of the Indo-US nuclear deal, can be called a pittance or negligibly small sum compared to the Dollars involved in it in the long run. It is said that the deal involves $400,000/- crores.
There are inputs from reliable sources that the nuclear representatives who had been shuttling between New Delhi and Washington and Vienna and Geneva included more corporate nuclear dealers than people who deal with uranium and nuclear energy. They were finding a lucrative market in India with inexhaustible potential and the same is going to be squeezed out of the last vein of the nation within minimum 15 years from the date of the commissioning of this deal.
Who is listening to these concerns? There were many who could have done great service to the future of the nation on the basis of this deal. Dilly-dallying of the Leftist supporters had given Manmohan-sonia nexus enough leeway and time to seal deals with MPs not to vote against or to abstain from voting. It happened. And it has done the most heinous damage to the nation. A minority represented (in a multi-party system, democracy most of the time is the rule of the minority) government has defeated the majority. It the irony is it is a constitutional defeat.
To avert this democracy demolition, Mr. Karat and company should have pulled itself out of the UPA some one-year ago and sent the latter and the US running for support. Instead, what these Karats and group did is the opposite. I would call it one of the biggest opposition blunders these parties have ever done in their course of service (or disservice) to the nation.
Let us see how this deal fares for India
· Australia is the world’s biggest Producer of Uranium. But this nation does not have a nuclear reactor connected to its power grid because of its unaffordable cost of production.
· Such a power source is going to be inducted in a nation where the people are unable to afford power costing anything more than five rupees.
· A hugely populated nation like India is going to face catastrophic consequences with huge loss of life and ever-lasting radioactivity in the event of a single nuclear reactor failure.
· Is the US going to keep any insurance cover or risk allowance for this? Does the UPA have that much money to offer minimum five hundred thousands each to every would-be dead and dying?
· Let us all remember that the US is shipping in its kitchen and toilet wastes to the Indian shores on a regular basis. Such an unfeeling cluster of imperialists cannot be doing any favour to our nation if this deal gives them an open cheque.
· Through this deal they will ship to us everything from dead old reactors to the most deadly and crippling terms and conditions in the future.
· The hold of the NSG members, the IAEA, the so-called safe guards/conditionalities in the Hyde Act (which hides much more than it reveals), India’s nuclear independence and foreign policy, nuclear power for peaceful purposes and the like rhetoric do not hold much water when it is a matter of nation’s ability to afford nuclear energy, and shoulder its catastrophic consequences. Both are purely India-centric- not IAEA, US, NSG or Hyde Act centric.
· At present our nation harnesses only 3% nuclear energy. It is going to attach more than ten times that figure to its power grid in the coming decade. Can a nation like India afford such a power pressure? Today what we are short of is power. We are going to be chronically powerless to afford the available power in the immediate future. This is a fix. No doubt.
How does it do when it comes to our neighbouring Pakistan?
· There are reports that our neighbouring Pakistan has started demanding for a similar nuclear deal, and these NSG and IAEA officials, along with their American corporate business associates, are bound to sit with Pakistan too in the immediate future. What does such a similar agreement amount to be?
· Naturally, our counterpart too would be given a tailor-made nuclear deal in the long run and from then on we both would keep our muscles flexed and our military egos clashing whenever there is an altercation across the border. What else is left for the US to convert this peaceful region into a confrontationist one? Is not there enough scope for some weapons retail? There is ample.
· To cap it all, Pakistan has recently hinted that it is no problem if the US brokers a deal for Kashmir issue provided a neighbour-friendly nuclear deal is sealed for (it) Pakistan too.
So what is up for us all to know? If coalition politics is this nation-bashing and devastating, think of a single party majority in the House or of a brutal majority. Though no election in independent India is expected to effect a House with brutal majority, the possibility for a narrow margin single party House cannot be ruled out, say some ten years later. Deals of this kind will surface in future too. Therefore, when we vote next time, we all need to be cautious. Democracy seems to be a threat to nations like India.
However, if MPs could be bargained for and bought out, if a nation’s integrity can be kept out for auction, dissection and compromises, if money could keep the very existence of a populace at ransom, if a small minority is able to keep the huge majority at their mercy, in these times of huge turbulences and emergencies, a few stray noises that we find on platforms like these ones would not be able to echo enough decibels as to make changes of any kind. Still, it is worth sounding the alarm.
Even when the slave gets sold off against his will, he does have the right to cry out:
‘it is inhuman and outrageous and it is against my will; it is against my will’.
This is what my Nation does now. Sorry, My Land, it’s all about Money, Mohan and Sin, or Sonia?
Even when the slave gets sold off against his will, he has the right to cry out: ‘it is inhuman and outrageous and it is against my will; it is against my will’. This is what my Nation does now. Sorry, My Land, it’s all about Money, Mohan and Sin.
An emerging economy like India cannot afford to be going without meeting its surging energy demands. And as days go by, the need for finding energy sources is mounting to alarming proportions. It is a fact that we cannot do without energy of some kind. Else, how are we going to feed the population, how are we going to keep the wheels of development rolling, how are we going to be a developed nation in the next decade at least? Is there any other way out to this burgeoning power-crunch? Can a power hungry nation ever be people-and-progress friendly? An emphatic no is the answer to the last question.
Yes, it all sounds reasonable to an ordinary voter. But there are millions of voters in the subcontinent who are not ready to buy such a chain of questions. They are a thinking lot who feel that the much hyped nuclear deal with the US is nothing short of outright sell off. For, this nation needs sustainable and affordable power, in the sense that we cannot offer to sell Hamburgers to a populace that is vying hard to afford a sandwich made of bread and butter.
It is reported that a unit of nuclear electricity would cost Rs. 15/- or so, and by the time this deal comes to produce energy, the price per unit is bound to appreciate and go far beyond the reach of any industry or individual. Then, we cannot say that it is so costly and we are unable to afford it. This situation would raise the same questions that we had found in the beginning of this article.
· How are we going to feed the population in the long run?
· How are we going to keep the wheels of development rolling?
· How are we going to be a developed nation in the next decade at least?
· Can we afford ourselves to be called a developing nation all the ages to come?
· Is there any other way out to this burgeoning power-crunch that keeps the gears of the economy grinding to halts as and when monsoon fails to last long enough or summer lasts a little longer than usual?
· Can a power-hungry nation ever be people-and-progress-friendly?
And if our Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh (some people have started calling him Moneymohan Singh after his successful annexing of a few MPs to his stable during the last round of nuclear sell off deal that went in our very Lok Sabha a couple of weeks ago) has a little qualms about the concerns raised by a sizeable number of the population, it is his responsibility to prove that he was dealing with the US solely for the greater interest of the nation. And the fears and concerns, which his own MPs and those horse-traded ones had been raising for nearly a couple of years or so, are unfounded.
The bales of currency, which got involved in the process of the confidence motion prior to the last leg of the Indo-US nuclear deal, can be called a pittance or negligibly small sum compared to the Dollars involved in it in the long run. It is said that the deal involves $400,000/- crores.
There are inputs from reliable sources that the nuclear representatives who had been shuttling between New Delhi and Washington and Vienna and Geneva included more corporate nuclear dealers than people who deal with uranium and nuclear energy. They were finding a lucrative market in India with inexhaustible potential and the same is going to be squeezed out of the last vein of the nation within minimum 15 years from the date of the commissioning of this deal.
Who is listening to these concerns? There were many who could have done great service to the future of the nation on the basis of this deal. Dilly-dallying of the Leftist supporters had given Manmohan-sonia nexus enough leeway and time to seal deals with MPs not to vote against or to abstain from voting. It happened. And it has done the most heinous damage to the nation. A minority represented (in a multi-party system, democracy most of the time is the rule of the minority) government has defeated the majority. It the irony is it is a constitutional defeat.
To avert this democracy demolition, Mr. Karat and company should have pulled itself out of the UPA some one-year ago and sent the latter and the US running for support. Instead, what these Karats and group did is the opposite. I would call it one of the biggest opposition blunders these parties have ever done in their course of service (or disservice) to the nation.
Let us see how this deal fares for India
· Australia is the world’s biggest Producer of Uranium. But this nation does not have a nuclear reactor connected to its power grid because of its unaffordable cost of production.
· Such a power source is going to be inducted in a nation where the people are unable to afford power costing anything more than five rupees.
· A hugely populated nation like India is going to face catastrophic consequences with huge loss of life and ever-lasting radioactivity in the event of a single nuclear reactor failure.
· Is the US going to keep any insurance cover or risk allowance for this? Does the UPA have that much money to offer minimum five hundred thousands each to every would-be dead and dying?
· Let us all remember that the US is shipping in its kitchen and toilet wastes to the Indian shores on a regular basis. Such an unfeeling cluster of imperialists cannot be doing any favour to our nation if this deal gives them an open cheque.
· Through this deal they will ship to us everything from dead old reactors to the most deadly and crippling terms and conditions in the future.
· The hold of the NSG members, the IAEA, the so-called safe guards/conditionalities in the Hyde Act (which hides much more than it reveals), India’s nuclear independence and foreign policy, nuclear power for peaceful purposes and the like rhetoric do not hold much water when it is a matter of nation’s ability to afford nuclear energy, and shoulder its catastrophic consequences. Both are purely India-centric- not IAEA, US, NSG or Hyde Act centric.
· At present our nation harnesses only 3% nuclear energy. It is going to attach more than ten times that figure to its power grid in the coming decade. Can a nation like India afford such a power pressure? Today what we are short of is power. We are going to be chronically powerless to afford the available power in the immediate future. This is a fix. No doubt.
How does it do when it comes to our neighbouring Pakistan?
· There are reports that our neighbouring Pakistan has started demanding for a similar nuclear deal, and these NSG and IAEA officials, along with their American corporate business associates, are bound to sit with Pakistan too in the immediate future. What does such a similar agreement amount to be?
· Naturally, our counterpart too would be given a tailor-made nuclear deal in the long run and from then on we both would keep our muscles flexed and our military egos clashing whenever there is an altercation across the border. What else is left for the US to convert this peaceful region into a confrontationist one? Is not there enough scope for some weapons retail? There is ample.
· To cap it all, Pakistan has recently hinted that it is no problem if the US brokers a deal for Kashmir issue provided a neighbour-friendly nuclear deal is sealed for (it) Pakistan too.
So what is up for us all to know? If coalition politics is this nation-bashing and devastating, think of a single party majority in the House or of a brutal majority. Though no election in independent India is expected to effect a House with brutal majority, the possibility for a narrow margin single party House cannot be ruled out, say some ten years later. Deals of this kind will surface in future too. Therefore, when we vote next time, we all need to be cautious. Democracy seems to be a threat to nations like India.
However, if MPs could be bargained for and bought out, if a nation’s integrity can be kept out for auction, dissection and compromises, if money could keep the very existence of a populace at ransom, if a small minority is able to keep the huge majority at their mercy, in these times of huge turbulences and emergencies, a few stray noises that we find on platforms like these ones would not be able to echo enough decibels as to make changes of any kind. Still, it is worth sounding the alarm.
Even when the slave gets sold off against his will, he does have the right to cry out:
‘it is inhuman and outrageous and it is against my will; it is against my will’.
This is what my Nation does now. Sorry, My Land, it’s all about Money, Mohan and Sin, or Sonia?
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