SFI Pamphlet dated 2nd Sept, '07

02-09-07

INDO-US NUCLEAR DEAL: EXPOSE THE HYPOCRISY OF THE RSS-BJP-ABVP!!

Friends,

The Left parties have strongly opposed the Indo-US nuclear deal and asked the UPA Government not to proceed further. This deal has little to do with the interests of India or the Indian people. It is not a stand-alone agreement, but part of a wider strategic alliance to make India the outpost of American interests in Asia. Other agreements with the US have also been reached by the Government on defence, on agriculture, on industry, which will have wide reaching negative implications on the lives of the Indian people. Already the foreign policy of the Government is under pressure because of the strategic alliance with America. It is a result of the opposition of the Left that the Government has been forced to constitute a committee to look into the Left's objections and examine the implications of Hyde Act which has been passed by the US Government. To that extent the Government has agreed that it will not immediately go to the next step of approaching the IAEA for safeguards agreement.

It is in this context that the ABVP in campus, finding itself and the RSS-BJP to be completely sidelined by the opposition of the Left to the Indo-US nuclear deal, have brought out a pamphlet full of lies against the Left. At the very outset it needs to be noted that the opposition of the RSS-BJP to the Indo-US nuclear deal is completely hypocritical. It should not be forgotten that the NDA regime under the leadership of the RSS-BJP was the most pro-US government that the country had ever seen. While the nuclear deal is the expression of a fresh tactical approach on the question of Indo-US nuclear relations by the UPA government, as compared to its predecessor, there is nevertheless a basic strategic continuity with the nuclear policy that was inaugurated by the NDA government following the nuclear weapons tests of 1998.

With the 1998 test, the NDA government announced India’s readiness to accede to the global non-proliferation order presided over by the United States provided India was accommodated as a nuclear weapons state. In particular, Vajpayee declared his government’s willingness to sign the CTBT and co-operate in the negotiations for a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty. It was clear that any attempt to deal with the diplomatic and foreign policy fallout of the nuclear weapons tests, while trying to retain even a fig-leaf of ‘nuclear weapons state’ status, would involve substantial concessions to the United States in foreign policy terms. It also soon became clear that this was a price that the NDA government was more than willing to pay.

After conducting the nuclear tests at Pokhran in May 1998, the BJP-led government entered into prolonged secret negotiations with the US. Following the visit of US President Clinton to India in March 2000, the BJP-RSS combine felt that it had achieved its cherished goal of getting the US to accept India as its ‘natural ally’ and not Pakistan. The urge to be a subordinate ally of the US prompted the NDA Government to become the first government anywhere in the world to welcome the National Missile Defense programme announced by George Bush. In the ftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, the BJP-led Government offered to be a partner in Bush’s “war against terrorism” and place India’s military facilities at its disposal. The NDA Government also went to the extent of planning to send Indian troops to Iraq during the US-led invasion but was eventually prevented due to the groundswell of public opinion in India. In its desperation to woo their bosses in the USA, LK Advani went to visit the CIA headquarters. The Indian Government did not even protest against the atrocious act of US security agencies, when the Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes was strip searched in the USA. Is this the brand of patriotism that the ABVP wants the campus to believe? The NDA left all pretensions of leading the Non-Aligned Movement and abandoned our age old support to the Palestine cause while buying weapons from Israel. These agents of US imperialism have no concern for the sovereignty of India. Basically the BJP is 'hurt' by the fact that they could not strike this deal with the US. One remembers the childhood fable of sour grapes, looking at the positions of BJP.

The ABVP should remember that the NDA Government was routed from power because of a mandate of the people against the communal politics of RSS-BJP and its proclivity to US imperialism and ruthless pursuance of neo-liberalism. In their greed for power to earn dollars, through multiple corruptions, like Bangaru Laxman in the Tehelka expose, they are desperate to see the UPA government voted out in Parliament. This is not surprising since during the NDA regime, the entire period was tainted with scams, be it the Tehelka expose, coffin scam, petrol pump scam, stamp scam etc. Very recently one of their MPs was caught red handed in a case of woman trafficking and again some of their MPs were caught taking money to raise questions in Parliament. One needs no lessons in patriotism or morality from political forces who are willing to sell off the nation to earn money. As far as the issue of withdrawing support is concerned, who are the fascistic RSS-BJP-ABVP to advise the Left in this regard when it was the opposition to their communal and pro-imperialist policies that resulted in the formation of UPA and the Left's support to it from outside? The Left needs no counsel from them since we are aware of the fact that the BJP will be more than willing to act as junior partners of US imperialism, since they are a pro-imperialist party. We appeal to the student community to isolate the pro-imperialist and communal politics of ABVP and rally behind the Left in opposing the Indo-US nuclear deal, upholding our sovereignty and independent foreign policy.

Sd/- Rajiv Kumar Ranjan, Secretary, SFI-JNU; Sd/-Roshan Kishore, President, SFI-JNU.