Slow breeder reactor

Arguments, pro and anti, are assuming radioactive intensity over the Indo-US nuclear deal. But the main opposition party is out at lunch. In a strange abdication of its legitimate role, the BJP has fallen silent on one of the most important issues India has debated since independence. The Bush-Manmohan agreement is about liberating India from the technology denial regimes and recognising its right to be part of the nuclear club house. In return, India has offered a credible separation of its civilian and military facilities.

While the former national security adviser, Brajesh Mishra, has called for a review of the nuclear deal, the BJP as a party has said little. In articulating his critique, Mishra has insisted that he was not speaking on behalf of the BJP but only as a former decision maker. Where does that leave the BJP? Does it like the nuclear deal? The BJP8217;s silence has allowed the Left to virtually write the anti-deal political thesis. The Left, if it was true to its political philosophy and acted as Left-wing critiques in the West do, should have demanded greater accountability from the DAE, which after decades of claiming that its nuclear programme was entirely for peaceful purposes now insists everything in the programme is strategic. But the Left has at least made the effort to pull out the old chestnut of anti-imperialism. What has the BJP done?

Remember this is a party familiar with nuclear realpolitik. The BJP was in power for six long years, from 1998 to 2004, a period that will be long remembered for foreign policy activism and achievements on the nuclear front. It was Atal Bihari Vajpayee who made bold to conduct the tests of May 1998. Disproving Left critics, the BJP demonstrated that the fall-out from the tests could not isolate a nation like India. More fundamentally, the BJP laid the foundations for the deal that Manmohan Singh negotiated with Bush. While the UPA government fumbles in implementing the deal, it is incumbent upon the BJP to steer the debate in an appropriate direction. But does the party have either the political energy or conviction to stand up and be counted?