Indo - US N Deal

Over the last few months, the India- US N deal or the 123 Agreement seems to be in the headlines every other day thanks to the left.

This deal would get India recognized as a civilian nuclear power and the US will aid India with its status with IAEA and shall help in lifting the sanctions imposed against India.

In return, India, would have to:
i. identify and separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities and programmes;
ii. declare its civilian facilities to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA);
iii.voluntarily place civilian facilities under IAEA safeguards;
iv. sign an Additional Protocol for civilian facilities;
v. continue its unilateral nuclear test moratorium;
vi. work with the United States to conclude a Fissile Material Cut Off Treaty (FMCT);
vii. refrain from transferring enrichment and reprocessing technologies to states that do not have them, as well as support international efforts to limit their spread;
viii. secure its nuclear materials and technology through comprehensive export control legislation and through harmonisation and adherence to Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and NSG guidelines.

All these seem to be fine.. So why are left creating Havoc on this?

Current Capability:
The 15 functioning reactors produce abour 3K MW. Of these, 4 of them are already under the IAEA safeguards. The US wants all the reactors including the Fast Breeder Reactor in Kalpakkam to be under the IAEA scanner.

India's Stand:

Scientific Community:
Indian scientists are not willing to keep the Fast Breeder Reactor Programme under the scanner as they feel it would jeopardise our strategic interests; Leak our IPR on these reactors and could affect the scope of on going research in India

Political Community:
The left has vehemently opposed to the 123 agreement and have claimed that the Hyde act could affect india as they could use this as a pawn to steer India towards thier national interests.
They feel that operationalizing this deal could make India succesptible to the US policiies and could lead towards NPT
However, of late there have been some fagments within the left who have openly supported the bill
BJP has asked for a parliamentary committe to review this so that it is in the best interest in the country
Congress has favored this. Manmohan Singh took a great daring stand (for a politician) on the issue and sensationalised it. Since then Congress has been awry but taken small steps towards it. The recent move to have an open and non commital review with IAEA is one such step. Sonia's recent comments in Washington however have caught the wrath of the left.


Business Community:
With India's GDP growing at close to 10% Power and Infrastructure is at most concern to the Indian business community. We need to more than double our investment on Infrastructure and Power if we need to maintain this growth rate.

So it seems like the only opposition is coming from the Left and has caused enough damage that the Congress-Left marriage seems to be headed for a divorce. Will India sign the deal or will it go on hold.... Only Time can tell

Wolfowitz - A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

The Wolfowitz scandal seems to have brought the World Bank into limelight. The board led by the european union wants the current president of the world bank to step down amidst the scandal.
Wolfowitz is accused of giving a promotion and a huge raise to his girl friend Shaha Riza.
Shaha Riza, a Libyan born and brought up in Saudi, is a big advocate of the female rights. As per Time magazine, she shares the American passion in spreading democracy in the Middle-East.
Paul Wolfowitz, an American has been of the opinion of striking and eradicating a threat before it becomes a threat. He was a strong supporter of the War in Iraq. It is speculated that he was made as the President of the World Bank by the White House as an award to his contribution to the War on Terror.
It is also told that the relationship between them pre-dated his joining the World Bank. The world bank has a rule that a couple cannot work in the bank together or people dating each other cannot be in each others chaing of reportee. This would've been a conflict of intrest to Shaha and hence the external assignment.

Now back to the scandal, after Wolfowitz became the president of the world bank, Shaha was put on an external assignement with the US State Department with a huge raise and promotion and was routed thr' the ethics committe. The then chairman however says that the committee was not aware of her previous salary and the extent of raise.
This is also backed by the employees of the bank who seem to have been averse to Wolfowitz style of management.
American backed journalism however advocates that the middle management is percepting a threat from some of the new initiatives started by Wolf including anti-corruption drives. The White House is backing Wolfowitz. This couldn't have been more ill timed as the US President is also being crushed on the War on Iraq and the time table to bring back the Amrican troops. The African continent seems to be supporting Wolfowitz, for his keeness to help Africa (or maybe driven by the White House), while the European Union and the Nordic countries which are promoters of the bank want him to step down.
The White House is also seeing this as a threat to the US. As the biggest share holder, the president of the United States has been always been choosing the president of the World bank and it now seems that they might want to bring in a non US president to cool down the storm. The EU is also showing it's dominance and is being percieved as a hostile behavior by the US.
Wolfowitz has hired a lawyer with international reputation to take him out of this hell hole. The coming weeks should give more clarity into the issue as the board of directors would be deciding on the fate of Wolfowitz.