It is not without significance that the vigorous campaign of the leftist parties -- particularly of the CPI-M -- against the recently concluded Indo-US agreement on civil nuclear co-operation and against the growing strategic interactions between India and the US in particular has coincided with the beginning of the Chinese campaign against the so-called quadrilateral strategic interaction involving India, Japan, the US and Australia and the naval exercise with the additional involvement of the Singapore navy.
The leftists' campaign against India's relations with the US reflects more China's concerns and interests than those of India. I have never been excited over the Indo-US agreement on civil nuclear co-operation. Nor do I share Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's [Images] enthusiasm for US President George Bush [Images] and the Indo-US agreement. I am inclined to feel that what we are seeing now is a one-night stand between Dr Singh and Mr Bush. Like most one-night stands, the happy thoughts thereafter will become an embarrassment in course of time.
At the same time here is another story in a newspaper. To quote a para from that story.
China and its â??all-weatherâ?? ally Pakistan are discussing an agreement similar to the one India has reached with the US on the civilian nuclear cooperation to maintain the regional security balance, sources said.
Now, somebody needs to explain to me, how does civilian nuclear cooperation results in regional security imbalance. Civilian nuclear cooperation is supposed to be about energy needs of a country and should have nothing to do with regional security imbalance. That point aside, communists seem to have no issues with that. Till the time it is "India" that gets shafted, communists are happy.
Here is another story. To quote from the story.
The fuel shortage situation has started telling on the performance of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL). Currently operating nuclear power stations with a capacity of around 4,000 MWe, it has been forced to slash power production levels.
The overall plant load factor (PLF) has come down from a high of 80-90 per cent to around 60 per cent in some three years â?? a drop of 30 per cent when thereâ??s power shortage in the country.
â?¢ NPCIL Chairman-cum-Managing Director S K Jain says the fuel shortage-led fall in PLF has already resulted in a loss of Rs 800 crore potential revenue.
So, to summarize, India needs fuel for its existing power reactors leave alone for the new ones that need to be built. India does not have this fuel available within. I know there are people with swadeshi angle who would want us to build everything inhouse but the fact is after 60 years of independence and 40 years of first nuclear test, we still produce abysmal amount of nuclear power and that too is dwindling. There a country who is willing to provide us this fuel which will let us generate more power but we believe because they are willing to give that power there must be something wrong either with them or with us.
I think we have enough diplomats and lawyers who can read the text of any treaty and figure out where it has that small print that is making us worried. I have not seen anything from anybody (except the fear psychosis created by communists) that would suggest that the deal is really bad for us. I have hear arguments that it is good for us or probably we don't gain much.
I think we should have confidence in being able to handle ourselves with determination if in future something new props up, but to mortgage our present because we don't believe in ourselves and our governments to be able to handle ourselves better in future is stupidity.
And by the way, these communists needs to be kicked out. Please, friends in Kerala and WB, kick them out.
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