The failure is political

These mistakes caused India to miss the bus time and time again. We failed to do what, to use the prime minister’s words, was ‘manifestly obvious’. When China slyly dumped Communism for capitalism in the late seventies, we tightened the license-quota-permit raj. When East Asia followed China’s example and invited India to join ASEAN, we rejected their hand of friendship. When the Cold War ended with the disintegration of our best friend, the Soviet Union, we continued to cling to the idea of non-alignment. From whom, we never asked. And, now when it is ‘manifestly obvious’ that if we miss the bus on the nuclear deal the Americans offer us, we could miss it for good, we are ready to miss it.

Watching the nuclear non-debate in Parliament last week was a saddening experience. Ironically, not because of the positions taken by that old bully, the CPM, and its acolytes but because of the pathetic performance that the BJP offered.

How will we have Pokharan III if the deal goes through? This is the fundamental point that our Hindutva brethren seek to make without anyone seeing what is manifestly obvious. What is there to stop us testing another nuclear device if we want to? Did we ask permission to test the other two? What is the most that can happen? We will be sanctioned by the nuclear countries of the western world for being naughty again, but so what? I haven’t noticed that it has stopped Iran from going ahead with their nuclear programme and it never stopped us or Pakistan in the past.

The BJP’s scared-cat behaviour extends that ludicrous ‘sovereignty’ argument that has been the mainstay of the Left’s opposition to the deal. Although, later Commissar Karat was good enough to admit that what bothered him and his comrades most was that India getting into too cosy a relationship with the United States threatened China.

What is the BJP worldview? What is its view of India? Does it really believe that one deal will result in us bartering away India’s ‘sovereignty’, because if it does then it insults India. This is not a good thing for a political party that considers itself the flag-bearer of Indian nationalism. Surely, the BJP needs to come up with something more convincing. Surely it needs to think through the advantages of the deal — the access to civilian nuclear technology, the backdoor entry into the nuclear club, the importance of developing nuclear energy.

If the BJP had any real feelings for India, if it was a truly nationalistic party, it would have backed down even at this late stage and supported the prime minister in his efforts to ensure that we do not yet again fail to do what is ‘manifestly obvious’.

It will not, though, and India will probably miss the bus again because our political class let us down yet again. So next time if one of you see me at an airport and come up to ask why I am so mean about our politicians, please remember it is only because I feel that they are the only class of Indians who consistently let us down. If you read this column regularly, you know that I have a deep contempt for Indian bureaucrats, but even they are changing. Sometimes because they are younger, wiser and less chippy and sometimes because their offspring, educated in the finest universities of the western world, force them to wake up and smell the coffee.

With the political class, even this does not happen, because all that the foreign-educated children of our politicians seem to want is Daddyji or Mummyji’s seat in Parliament. So forgive me if I continue to be mean about our political class.