"Nuclear Hypocrisy"

Now that there is an op-ed in a major newspaper by someone from the administration about the Nuclear deal with India (It actually said "More Indians study in our universities than students from any other nation."), Here's what Arudhati Roy said, on Democracy Now:

...you have these hundreds of thousands of people protesting, and you have -- we have a government that’s been so obsequious that it makes your skin crawl...
...
the impact of these [nuclear] policies is what the Congress pretended to be against when it was campaigning in the elections. And then, as soon as they won the elections, they just resorted to, you know, the usual corporate policies and privatization..

So,.. that’s that it’s a double-pronged thing, and that's why I think it's very important for us to understand that this nuclear deal that's being talked about is not just that.. it's really the umbrella for a million different other kinds of deals that are going on,.. the Indian government is negotiating India into a corner where,.. you're not going to be able to -- you're trying to pretend that you're making some equal deal, but actually, you’re officially signing a deal with an alligator.
...
since the so-called economic reform regime began, the number of farmers that have committed suicide is in the tens of thousands in India and in Andhra Pradesh, one of the states worst hit by that. So Bush nor the Indian government is talking about the fact that Andhra Pradesh is overrun by a radical armed struggle, Maoist armed struggle, you know?
...
My position, when India conducted the nuclear test was that, you know, that now that you’ve done this, you're going to have to play by their rules, so it's not actually that you're freeing yourself, but you're selling yourself into kind of nuclear bondage, and this is exactly what is happening, that you’re no longer able to make an independent decision because you’re just going -- it's just like an orchestra.

and

TONY BENN: Well, you see, the United States and Britain are in total breach of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Non-Proliferation Treaty says three things. One, the nuclear powers will agree to disarm collectively. Secondly, that other countries can develop nuclear technology. And thirdly, that nuclear powers will give absolute assurances they will never use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear state. And both the United States and Britain have now said that if their security was at stake, they would use nuclear weapons.. and when he went to India the other day, which isn’t a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, he signed an agreement. So, I mean, the thing is total hypocrisy.
...
You see, the funny thing about this, looking back at my life, because I was born in an empire, twenty percent of the population of the world was governed from London, and we locked people up. I met Mr. Gandhi; he was locked up. I met Nehru; he was locked up, Mandela was locked up, Kwame Nkrumah was locked up, and then they all ended up having tea with the queen as head of Commonwealth countries, and I suppose you could argue, though it might be unacceptable to your audience, George Washington was a terrorist. He raised an army against the King of England who was a legitimate king of the colonies. And so, the whole thing is completely fraudulent. It has nothing to do with morality. It has to do with power, and when Bush said the United States was addicted to oil – which I've been saying for years -- but he said it, addicts have a way of killing to get what they need, and I think the thing – I think the important thing for us now is to understand what's happening.

Well put by the longest serving MP for the labour party in Britian on Democracy Now, with emphasis added and edited as I saw fit. Here is the more mainstream view about the NPT and the deal with India. This and a couple more articles on Slate had, and still have me convinced the deal actually won't go through, unless maybe the Republicans steamroll some legislation through like they did CAFTA. Then there is still the Nuclear Suppliers Group left to be convinced. The CTBT and the NPT are not universally enforced. Universal is the key word there. India's stand has been quite clear for the last 30+ years. It's even justified by the Bhagvad Gita, as the end of the policy statement says.

Some cartoons from Slate:







I still don't know how much media attention this got, I saw a couple of e-mails read by Lou Dobbs on CNN. Regardless, I'll see the mango thing, and raise you the wiskey thing. Whiskey for Mangoes sounds decent, The Indian niche can be mango flavored whiskey maybe? On second thought, here are three things to know about Indians, or just me: Yes, our parents drive us nuts about marriage (arranged marriage for those of us who are socially inept thanks to PCM, I'm kidding :)), We love Cricket in all it's glory, and our love of mangoes ranks second to only the aforementioned two things for being distinguished as a desi (Indian), and definately above nyo-kyo-ler technology. So, Bush is going for Indian votes here when giving the 2 million Indians who live in the US the chance to eat Indian Mangoes. It's quite clear.