Great deal

The BJP had always desired a nuclear deal with the US but never came close to actually clinching it and therefore I am aghast to see the par...

The BJP had always desired a nuclear deal with the US but never came close to actually clinching it and therefore I am aghast to see the party singing a totally different tune now. Everybody knows how hard Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha had tried to woo America as ministers. It is obvious that what India has managed to close with the US is a highly favourable deal that no other country in the world could achieve so far. We have managed to get all the privileges of a nuclear state without signing contentious agreements like the CTBT and NPT.

It is equally obvious that the Indo-US nuclear agreement will have a lasting impact on our fast-growing yet energy-deprived economy. An easy supply of nuclear fuels and technologies could wipe out our electricity shortage and turn India into one of the few energy-abundant countries of the world. Yet BJP8217;s Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha continue their nitpicking about the agreement.

Their biggest complaint is that India is trading its unchecked freedom to produce as many nuclear arms as it wants. Strange as it sounds coming from a party that had proactively advocated nuclear disarmament while in power, the inherent illogic of their objection is all the more amusing. After all, is it really that difficult to choose between the ability to produce as many nuclear bombs as one wants, that too without ever hoping to use even a single one, and the ability to generate as much electricity through nuclear power plants as one needs?

A deal always involves give and take and it is unrealistic to expect the US to provide us with nuclear fuels and facilities and then demand no restrictions on their potential use in the manufacturing of nuclear arms. We do not want endless supply of nuclear arms but we need huge supplies of nuclear electricity. In any case, the government is already negotiating section 123 with the US administration and India8217;s point man for the deal, ex-foreign secretary Shyam Saran, has assured us that India8217;s best interests will be kept sacrosanct. It is time everyone should put aside uncalled-for cynicism and celebrate the deal.

Big ban theory

It is another case of mistaken priorities that the health ministry is pushing for a total ban on colas and junk foods in school canteens. In a country where millions of patients do not get basic access to medical facilities and there is no dearth of pressing issues facing a dilapidated public health system, the ministry can certainly do without wasting its energies on imposing non-enforceable bans.

There is no definitive proof that drinking colas is bad for health. Banning sale of colas or junk foods in schools is at best an exercise in futility as it will never stop children from consuming these outside their schools.

Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss sometimes gets too carried away in his zeal to do good for society. It would be better if he sticks to one of his other proposals: a mandatory imparting of education about good eating habits to children in schools.

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India8217;s film industry may be the largest in the world but our bureaucracy8217;s attitude towards the industry is hardly encouraging. Shooting a film in India is a complex exercise fraught with dozens of permissions and certificates required at every stage.

For a simple permission to shoot scenes with animals, filmmakers in India today have to grapple with some of the most absurd rules and regulations in the world where they even have to seek permission from the Animal Welfare Board to shoot scenes of rats, after getting the rats examined and certified as physically fit! For an industry earning thousands of crores and giving hundreds of crores back to government as taxes, the rules of the game ought to be a lot fairer.

The writer is a Congress MP in Rajya Sabha