US and India have a nuclear moment

Yesterday, Indian MPs voted a confidence motion to their Government in order to seal a civilian nuclear agreement with the United States government so India can meet its energy needs. Despite being a large producer of oil, India's oil meets just 40% of the country's rapidly increasing consumption. India pretended to be in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) but seems it never had a real will to sign it. That is a sine qua non condition to receive this technology ... until now. I wonder what kind of precedent this exemption is going to create? Especially now that Iran's nuclear developments are in vogue.

If this was not enough, the icing on the cake was when the MPs began waving wads of cash in Parliament - a supposed bribe to abstain. I expected more of India, whose prime minister Manmohan Singh, as far as I know is an intellectual with first class honours from Cambridge, Oxford, et cetera. Wether it is true or not, he has shown that he is leading a corrupt party (not that the opposition does much better), not knowing what is going on in his own party or encouraging this behaviour! As The Asian Age said parliament has "sullied the fair image and reputation of the Indian parliamentary system earned over six decades", and most media used adjectives such as pyrrhic and shame.

As a country that possesses nuclear weapons, couldn't India finance programs to develop its own civil nuclear energy? Are they meritous enough to deserve this kind of help? The answer is no, but with China threatening America's supremacy, an India is emerging stronger and stronger and could be a great ally to content a China (which is already biting America's heels). Morever, Mr. Bush - always willing to fight terrorists - has elevated its position to India when compared to Pakistan. I want to see how well it goes for General Pervez Musharraf to implement anti-terrorist policies lead by the US; I bet Pakistanies will be belly, belly happy.

There have been so many detractors around this matter in both countries. I already mentioned Indian media but the prestigious (a little less every year) New York Times also published more than one editorials about George Bush and Manmohan Singh's nuclear moment ... not happy I must say.

Picture from killeenroos.