Tags:
Journalism of Courage
In threatening the government that he will not 8220;countenance8221; its vote against Iran8217;s nuclear proliferation at the International Atomic Energy Agency last week, CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat commits three egregious errors. The least offensive one is his selective choice of facts in describing the Iranian nuclear imbroglio. While thundering in defence of Iran8217;s right to develop nuclear energy under the NPT, the CPM conveniently ignores the most important fact. That Iran was caught cheating in its secret pursuit of an undeclared nuclear enrichment programme, which would have given it the capacity to produce atomic weapons. If Iran was only interested in peaceful nuclear energy, it could have developed the enrichment programme in the open. Karat refuses to address the primary question of Iran8217;s nuclear weapon ambition. Equally invidious has been the CPM8217;s attempt to create new 8220;facts8221; by blaming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a considered and collective decision of the Congress leadership.
Second, while giving a clean chit to Iran, Karat has nothing but contempt for India8217;s own effort to gain access to atomic energy through the Indo-US nuclear pact, which he calls 8220;a mess of pottage8221;. This is not surprising. While the CPM supported Soviet and Chinese nuclear weapons they were progressive, you see, it consistently opposed India8217;s nuclear programme, including the May 1998 tests. With India now poised to break out of its nuclear isolation, the CPM wants to destroy India8217;s long-standing diplomatic effort to regain access to international nuclear energy cooperation.
