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Journalism of Courage
Much too often, the debate on the Indo-US nuclear deal has been conducted in political shorthand or it has meandered into ideological deadends. As the nuclear endgame begins, the overwhelming sense is still one of sharp polarisation rather than an engagement that could be deemed either open-minded or rigorous. This is why the former foreign secretary, Shyam Saran8217;s speech at the India International Centre on February 18 is a welcome departure. Drawing on his own association with the negotiation process, Saran offers a sober and lucid account of the PM8217;s mandate to the negotiators. He lays out the deal8217;s promise to dismantle the multi-lateral technology-denial regime that has targeted India for over 40 years; he spells out its implications for India8217;s quest for energy security. Saran locates his exposition in a quick changing global moment that offers unprecedented opportunities for an India that is being transformed by consequential economic transitions within.
Saran8217;s account is valuable not just for its engaging tone and the rare glimpse it permits into the government8217;s mind. It is more valuable because of the broad frame in which he situates the deal. As he argues it, this is not a pact between two countries. It is, instead, about changing a global regime that has unfairly denied India its rightful place and constricted its choices of partners and technologies. As the prime mover of those restrictive regimes in the first place and because it remains the predominant source of the new sensitive technologies, it is the US alone that can bring about the tipping point for India in the global regime.
