NEW DELHI, March 13 (UPI) -- There is
zero doubt that India and the U.S. are natural partners. Steady migration to
the U.S., the ever-denser interlinking of the hi-tech industry in both
countries, and common threats from religious fundamentalism and political
authoritarianism mandate that Washington and New Delhi forge an alliance that
is as close as that between the U.S. and the UK.
However, the caveat to this is that such
a partnership can only be on terms that are the same as what the U.S. accords
to the U.K. In brief, the U.S. has first to accept India as a nuclear weapons
state that deserves permanent membership in the U.N. Security Council.
Unfortunately, almost all the formulae trotted out by the "South
Asia" brigade in U.S. think tanks and other centers of influence such as
the State Department implicitly or otherwise seek to "engage" India
on terms that would, if accepted, result in an emasculation of the world's most
populous democracy.
The proposed Nuclear Deal falls squarely
in this category, and will, if sought to be implemented, push official
U.S.-India relations back to the frost of the Cold War period.
Indians love flattery, and often
surrender substance in exchange for a verbal pat on the head. Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, by education as well as by his experience in international
institutions, is predisposed to uncritical acceptance of the standard Western
worldview, which implicitly sees India as a juvenile power needing
mother-henning, and definitely not mature enough to be trusted with grown-up
implements such as nuclear weapons and their associated delivery systems. This
mistrust of the country's maturity -- despite New Delhi's impeccable
non-proliferation record to date -- infuses the terms of the deal that has been
agreed to by the Sonia Gandhi-led coalition government, hungry as always for
formal acknowledgment of its improving status. Were the agreement to be
implemented, India would almost immediately lose its chance to switch to the
thorium cycle, and within 12 years would find its tiny arsenal of nuclear
weapons depleted to irrelevance.
