/DEV/ZERO

This is a rebuttal of The Nuclear Chessboard

Preface:

This is an attempt to analyze and in the end dismiss the article posted by Mr. Mukund Joglekar on the site bindhast.com. Note the article is only posted by him and not authored by him. Although i feel he approves it quite whole heartedly.

But the main point to note here is that I am not arguing for or against a nuclear deal. The gist of this rebuttal is not about the congress, or the situation in parliament. It is about the argument used in the original article, which I feel contains assumptions that are quite harmful to us as a nation, as a society and as an individual.

So it begins:

For an article titled “The nuclear chessboard” The first two paragraphs are filled with sentences which mean nothing but “American's are evil imperialists”. And whats more he uses British assessment to prove this. Why should we care about US's intentions? When will we let go this instinct of being inferior? So Americans are evil; who cares? Aren't we strong enough to defend ourselves against it? Do you mean that once we sign a piece of paper with US we have no option but to bow down to their law? Hell no... let them make all the treaties and laws they want I can not succumb to the author's fears. Author greatly underestimates the might of our nation and gets behind an imaginary wall of frightening conspiracy the US is making against the world. It might be true. But for an Indian patriot its hardly a matter of concern. And especially Indians who treat law matters as their own backyard this should be least of our concerns.

We will analyze the remaining points made by author one by one which he says are key before we accept the agreement.

1. “India is a nuclear weapons power in reality. (This is pre-requisite, as the US does not want to recognize the reality that we are a nuclear weapons power. This blindness to truth is creating confusion and causing change of goal posts.)”

   Again the author contradicts himself. He is the one who is under constant fear that US ___needs___ to recognize us as nuclear power. I say screw them it doesn't matter weather they say it or not. Why should we get the approval of the what author thinks are the supreme lords?

2. “It is India's sovereign right to decide the size and type of our nuclear arsenal, depending on our assessment of security threats at any point in time in this fast changing dynamic world.”

   And you mean to say that signing a piece of paper with some nation will change this? Are we that poor that in an event we decide otherwise we can not support our economy? A simple look at world economic statistics will let you know the reality, Wake up you are not as vulenrable as you say or think. And further more the agreeement we make has no affect on this. American's don't make the said policy only if they make the agreement. The policy is going to stay weather agreement stays or not.

3. “Corollary to 2 above: (a) India will decide the amount of fissile material production at any time. (b) India will carry out nuclear and missile tests as required.”

   Being corollary of (2) it is mute point since 2 itself is stupid.

4. “For the preservation of human race, India believes in a nuclear weapon-free world without any discrimination.”

   This statement looks like it came straight from congress's common minimum program, which called for world piece and stability... not releveant too general and disjoint to reality.

5. “The agreement will not impinge on India's foreign policy of non-alignment. The quadrennial review of February 2006 of US Defence department shows the US policy regarding India is to limit our power. It also shows that the US policy is to have an American thousand year Reich to dominate the world. This is Quixotic and ignores the present day reality. It is bound to fail, as did Churchill's dream of continuation and longevity of British Empire during WW II. We did not struggle to throw off British rule to change masters. We cannot become a satellite of any other power now. We should sign treaties on the basis of equality.”

   The author is hilarious here, if its bound to fail why bother discuss it? And again yes i guess any powerfull nation will want to have such a policy and will have it and so does US. Again the agreement or no agreement it won't change this. Neither should we be scared or bothered.