Deal as equals

The latest issue of Organiser has an opening piece on the Indo-US nuclear deal. The article endorses BJP prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani8217;s...

The latest issue of Organiser has an opening piece on the Indo-US nuclear deal. The article endorses BJP prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani8217;s position on the issue. Written by retired IFS officer, O.P. Gupta, the article is titled, 8216;On N-deal Advani is right. India can and should secure an equal and better 123 deal.8217;

Says Gupta, 8220;Are we Indians prepared psychologically and diplomatically to take advantage of this emerging opportunity? By importing American reactors, India will be doing a favour to the recession-hit US, and not the other way. This favour should be done on our terms8230;8221; He goes on to say that, 8220;There is no dearth of US experts, UPA-inspired spin doctors and Indian intellectuals who advise ad nauseam that India must quickly complete negotiations with the IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency and the NSG Nuclear Suppliers Group so as to rush the India-US Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement 123 to the US Congress before June/July 2008 and get the signature of the outgoing President George Bush before he demits office in January 20098230; One may ask whether India will be able to secure better terms from the USA in future than the current version of the 123 Agreement8230;8221;

National and declining

A news item on local body elections in Uttarakhand laments the decline of national parties in the state. Titled 8216;Victory of independents relegates national parties8217; it notes that 8220;the BJP has managed to win only 18 out of the 60 posts of municipal chairpersons in the Uttarakhand local body elections 8212; just one ahead of the Congress. Independents won 22 seats, four ahead of the BJP. Even Bahujan Samaj Party BSP managed to win three seats.8221;

It further states, 8220;Out of 633 wards in various ULBs, the BJP won 177, while the Congress won only 135. Independents won 300 wards by massive margins, while the BSP won 10 wards. The Uttarakhand Kranti Dal remained a distant fourth winning only six wards while the Samajwadi Party SP won five seats. Many important seats were won by independents, giving a clear signal to both the BJP and Congress8230;8221;

Bank on security

In its regular editorial, 8216;Bangladesh Grameen Bank in Assam: Legitimate channels for illegitimate purposes8217;, the paper writes that 8220;the Congress Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi is taking undue interest in making the Bangladesh Grameen Bank open its branches in the state8230;8221; It further says,8221;In a couple of months three branches of the BGB will be opened in the state. The places identified were those districts that were badly affected by infiltrator-instigated terrorist activities like Sonitpur, in northern Assam. The Bangladeshi bank officials have visited the district a number of times, and the chief minister according to reports met the Bangladesh Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus in February and invited him to open the bank branches in Assam. Gogoi says that he was particularly interested in strengthening rural credit facilities in those districts that were badly affected by terrorism. If providing rural credit to poor people is the priority, then Indian banks could be asked to open their branches. It is clear that Tarun Gogoi has other ideas in mind.8221;