Will the BJP stand up?

It is not often that countries stare gift horses in the mouth. Nor is it usual for responsible political parties to behave in a manner that can hurt the long-term interests of their country. Yet, over the last couple of years and more, this is exactly the kind of behaviour that India has witnessed. When it comes to economic reform, the Communist allies of the UPA government have made sure that none takes place. The result is that a massive supply bottleneck has come into existence, which will take years to remove. But on behalf of the Communists, it can at least be said that they have been consistent in their opposition to liberal economic policies. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indo-US civil nuclear deal. Not only did the party, when it was in power until 2004, initiate the process that eventually culminated in the US offering India the deal; it was in fact willing to barter away its right to test (by signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty) in return for far less than is on offer right now. Most people had expected that the deal would not go through because US legislators might not play along; no one expected that the problem would be in India, which is the beneficiary party. But such are the tragic absurdities of Indian politics.

The BJP's agenda appears to have been captured by a small group that may or may not be representative of mainstream opinion, which in the case of the BJP has always been for a strong nuclear stance. The national security adviser in the BJP-led Vajpayee government, Brajesh Mishra, has come out openly in favour of the deal, though he has clarified that he is not speaking on behalf of the BJP. And the man who would be Prime Minister, LK Advani, has maintained an ambivalent stand, which in the context means that he will not give his approval. The result is that if the government decides that it will not go ahead with the deal without a political consensus, India would have lost an extraordinary opportunity to break out of the technological time denial regime that has hobbled it in different ways for the best part of three decades.

The BJP is focused on just two issues: one pertains to India's ability to conduct a nuclear test in the future, after the deal is signed. This would have been a legitimate concern, but it was the BJP itself that said in 1998 that no more tests were necessary. In any case, the consequences of a nuclear test post-deal will not be any worse or different than if there were no deal, and could conceivably be a shade better "" because the deal provides for situations that may arise when India feels compelled, for security reasons, to conduct a test. The other reason for BJP's opposition is probably pique. It feels that it should get the credit for bringing India to the nuclear high table. After all, it was the NDA government under the BJP's leadership, which conducted the Pokhran tests of 1998. Such competitive concerns would have made sense if the nuclear deal mattered to the common man in electoral terms, and if the country is going to forget the BJP's role in enhancing India's nuclear interests. The nuclear deal with the US is just one more step in the furtherance of a deeper friendship and broader engagement with that country. If the deal doesn't go through, not much harm will result to Indo-US relations, or to the US, but certainly India's energy and technological future will be jeopardised because no other US government is going to offer India such a bargain. If the BJP is a truly nationalist party, this is the time to show some nationalism.