THE NUKE DEAL
A couple of days back i was in for a rude shock whilst leafing through the pages of the TOI.In bold letters were emblazoned the words.... "
Load shedding to be further increased to maintain a balance between thewhich made me shudder involuntarily.Already reeling under a five hour power cut i wondered as to how on earth were we; instead of moving ahead and finding alternative measures for generating electricity; actually managing to go back into the yesteryear .... An era in which mankind lived in the dark sans electricity.This lead to me fervently hoping that the govt pulls through on the Trust vote.
deficit and its demand".....
22/7/2008 6 .15pm----- I switch on the news channel hoping that we are through the deal...only to find the parliament in total disarray... not to mention repeated images of some M.P's holding stacked bundles of cash alleging that the UPA has bribed some of the other constituency contemporaries for the trust vote....
By now even a person like me;who has neither watched any trust vote of the parliament,nor is acquainted with the various political parties & their respective members;was hooked onto the political drama(if i may say so).....
What bothered me most about the entire saga was that i just couldn't gauge the fact as to why the people of the Left, the BJP and the BSP were opposing the deal! Call me a lay man or whatever....but i could clearly weigh the pros and cons of this deal in under 20min or so... being a 20 year old i was aghast to see people more than double and even triple my age talk non sense.... passing vociferous comments which had nothing to do with the deal.. On the one hand the left wasn't allowing the young and dynamic leaders to put forth their point,while on the other they were totally misguided or unaware of the implications this deal could have on our country and our countrymen as a whole.... Shocking ,but true.
Be it Omar Abdullah,Sachin pilot, or Rahul Gandhi(the man who managed to steal the hearts of all true Indians by his speech),or Scindia i found each and every young politician had just one need of the hour viz- Progress of our country.However i guess this was grossly invisible to some of the opposition members of the TDP who for reference quote...
The UPA govt is ensuring that India becomes a slave to U.S.A.This is notFor crying out loud!
a deal between India and U.S. It is a deal between Manmohan Singh and
Bush!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ultimately mercifully amidst all this pandemonium the govt won the trust vote..
- On the hindsight i think this might work wonders for us.. To begin with India is energy starved.With an ever increasing population the need of the hour is an alternate source of fuel for rapid growth and industrialization.On account of the sky rocketing prices of crude oil and dearth of hydro carbons our power plants are all starved of Uranium.Just a meagre 55% of the capacity is being availed of.Investment in the nuclear power plant will result in 99%functioning of these units producing power that will lighten up even the deepest and darkest of our villages.
- Also assured fuel supply shall lead to more than 250 Major companies flourishing,not to mention their ancillary units ensuring business deals to the tune of $100 million or even more in the coming 5 years..This rapid industrilisation shall ensure healthy GDP keeping inflation under tab,not to mention a better quality of life for the countrymen,esp-the villagers.
After all
"India is a land of villages".
Dear Vidhya,
ReplyDeletePessimistic view or a different view!
I completely understand your views on the nuke deal but I beg to differ on certain points.
First and foremost I completely understand the need for a new source of energy it is a matter of fact that the existing sources are unsustainable. But the question that is indispensable is, whether 'the proposed' method is the answer to 'powerless' India :)
I contest the nuke deal on three main points, sovereignty, past experience and finally environment. I believe it is graded from the weakest to strongest argument
Sovereignty: I completely understand that it is inevitable for countries to be interdependent but is it ok for one country to dominate the other? Dictate terms to another? We need to find a way out but should it always be the US way? It might have worked well in other countries but does the same size fit all? These are just some issues i would like to flag and do not assert it to be right.
Past experience: take the instance of enron which is absolutely similar to what has been proposed currently. Cheap electricity for Bombay was promised by an American Company, heavy investments were made, and land alloted, machinery installed but all went down the drain. As a commerce student you will appreciate this case better as I cant give the details of the audit scam. What was the aftermath? The plant was shut down, heavy loss. The plant is absolutely useless and is not been put to any good use. May be i sound pessimistic but may be it can be seen as different perspective :)
A more cruel and heart breaking precedent is that of Union Carbide Corporation. A company set up to provide better fertilizers and so on. Disastrous and negligent management resulted in the death of thousands of our brothers and sisters. No one could be held liable, the case was shifted to the US and the offenders are not punished! Compensation not paid! and justice???? what if any of these repeat themselves? at the end of the day US is going to do ‘BUSINESS’ with us and not run the country.
Environment: Nuclear energy when controlled and contained is safe and extremely productive but instances of safe use are negligible. The one uranium deposit in India (now empty) is in Bihar in jaduguda, (try seeing atul patwardhan’s jang aur aman). The effect of the uranium that existed has been graphically exhibited in the movie. Children are born deformed, innumerable health hazards to name a few.
Lets be master of our destiny, accountable to the decisions we make. Do reflect, lets have a constructive debate.
And yeah, h r u? :) hows life?
Rajiv Pilot and Schindia? nvr heard of 'em must confess :)
ReplyDeleteGowthaman:good points of view but again,the future of a nation moving forward should never be based on past experience. (esp if it is clear at the grassroots ,(like u n me do),the enron fiasco and the union carbide incidents like you so knowledgeably mentioned.
Sovereignty:If Japan, China and the other G8 nations are willing to be dictated by Uncle Sam, should'nt we,as the second fastest growing economy take that risk? esp if it allows us a foothold into the world's nuclear club?
Mind you,I'm not saying we need to compromise on everything thats imposed on us..so subservience is out of the question!
Environment:Dont you think having better nuclear safeguards would be more pragmatic a solution than saying we do not want to get there because we dont want children to be born deformed? :)
Just imagine the case if the neanderthal man didnt want to use fire for fear that he might burn his hands...or for that matter his kids!
We as a young,dynamic nation need to look forward at the bigger picture.Change will always bring,in its wake,problems and inconvenience.
What needs to be done is to look beyond them and what we need to avoid from past experiences.
Afterall,isnt this what keeps the wheel of life moving?
(FYI:The young politician brigade,the Omar abdullahs,the Sachin Pilots and the Jyotiraoaditya Scindias seem to agree so we can breathe freely for now!)
Btw,nothing personal here, just sticking up for my lil sis :)
Cheers!
Gowthaman : hii... i am fine.... :)
ReplyDeleteIn reply to ur comment.........
I do admit that your take on the various issues that may go on to plague our nation after the nuke deal are
formidable,but don't you think that we need to look into the future ,instead of the past??
I totally agree with you about what happened with Enron and its aftermath.....but do u think that just because
of few such incidents occurring,mankind ought to stop progressing citing past failures to be the reasons for
them not venturing onto something that's promising & that's good for them in the long run???
With so many villages being on the brink of being bought over/mortgagued for lack of funds to pay-off their
loans,millions of farmers disraught on account of their impoverishment, don't u think that being dominated over a
bit by Uncle Sam will do more good than harm to us if it ensures us of rapid economic growth and
development both industrially and agriculturally thereby assuring stability in the economy ,food security,not
to mention a stable rate of inflation??????? So what if we need to bow down a bit to the U.S??? Do we , the
second largest growing economy in the world Want to be known as the second Zimbabve,whose inflation Lemme
remind you crossed 2.23 million last week????
Prima facie what our countrymen need now is a better quality of life ,for which ultimately it all comes down to
just one thing .I.E - power supply
Take the example of SHASHIKALA-- the widow who has acquired a celebrity status overnight, thanks to Rahul
Gandhi.. I am sure you are well aware of the probs her fellow villagers are facing on account of lack of power.
My friend the need for the day is
ensuring uninterrupted /or even a 20 hr power supply to all the villages across India for any kind of large
scale economic growth to take place and if we manage to achieve this India shall flourish like anything and
have not only a strong foothold in the nuclear club ,but also shall be a force to reckon with
with this i conclude :)
Dear Anna and vidya,
ReplyDeleteJust a few more thoughts :)
Both your posts more or less sums up the same arguments so here is my combined response to both.
First and foremost, I would like to clarify my stance again. In no way am I saying that we do not need to progress, I would be the last person to say so. My opposition is specifically to the Nuke deal, to the use of uranium.
Why not Solar energy? Even if it is expensive, the safety is higher, the cost will not be anywhere close to the unimagnable disaster of risking uranium use. why not use safer ways?
As far as not looking at the past, it is extremely difficult for me to assimilate this arggument. As a student of history I am told time and again that 'past is the best teacher'. As a student of law, precedents are the foundation for looking at present and future, it will be an error to ignore the past.
:) maaan,Vidya...u have covered the entire gamut di!...inflation, economic conditions of Zimbabwe..sashikala.. :) all ur readers now know every byte of info in ur tiny lil head..hehe!
ReplyDeleteGowthaman,I respect ur views da.Nice to know you lads have bright,insightful ideas.
Regarding ur views on the use of solar energy,I'd love to hear how Uncle Sam next bombs Iran or Libya using a solar missile!
hehe..on a serious note,solar energy does have its limitations and doesnt trigger energy at a rate that nuclear fission does to produce results comparable to nuclear energy.
To sum up the argument, I'd jus like to say:
If a visionary like APJ Abdul Kalam approves of the deal,and respecting the fact that he knows more about nuclear science and the state of this nation than the whole of the politburo put together I really dont see too much cause for concern...wot say? :)
now thats my elder bro!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :)
ReplyDeleteno comments.......
well, i am sure even Mr. Kalam will be happier if we re-think things that even he has accepted and not blindly accept things without questioning! :)
ReplyDeleteanyways, its been good having this discussion, jamespandu doesnt seem to be your real name :), wats ur name? wat do u do?
gowthaman..he's my elder bro vivek... wrking :)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteoh ok :)
ReplyDeleteHi vids... Welcome back... Not at all a bad one to start with... i read the previous one as well... pretty cool.. and i really njoyed reading them... well, i do agree to what you mentioned in ur blog abt the nuclear deal as well as the load shedding problems.. in fact, you can read my views in today's DNA on page no. 3. I have shared my feeligs there along with some fellow thaneites.. do read... anways keep writing and keep rocking...
ReplyDelete