The Hindu Business Line : Scientists sidelined in deal-making

Commentaries squeezing the last ounce of significance of the India-US agreement on full civil nuclear cooperation will be reverberating over the next few weeks in the print and electronic media. It is anybody's guess to what extent they are going to help the people at large arrive at a clear understanding of the precise nature and impact of the agreement.

For, the ones that have appeared so far have emitted more heat than light, some showing thumbs up, some thumbs down, and some crossed fingers. Issues are getting further clouded by the apprehensions, over the entire period the deal has been in the making, expressed by stalwarts of the scientific community, especially those who have devoted a lifetime to research and development of atomic energy and building and operating various types of reactors.

The inexplicable mystery here centres on the question why, on the Indian side, mostly politicians and bureaucrats have been in the forefront of handling the negotiations between the US and India, and why they went ahead with the various stages of the deal, without first effecting a consensus among scientists in the know of the nuances of atomic power generation and the existing and emerging technologies.

Intriguingly, there was no mention of the inclusion of India's atomic scientists at a high level in the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh's delegation doing the groundwork for the declaration of July 2005 co-authored by him and the US President, Mr George Bush. It was only at the final stage of clinching the deal that the name of the AEC Chairman, Dr Anil Kakodkar, began figuring in media reports.

Even then, the spotlight all the time was only on Mr M. K. Narayanan, the National Security Adviser, and Mr Shivshankar Menon, the Foreign Secretary, with Dr Kakodkar appearing to trail them inconspicuously. From my knowledge of Mr Narayanan for 45 years, and from what I have come to know of Mr Menon from the time he was Ambassador to Sri Lanka, I will readily grant their administrative abilities, but not their proficiency in highly intricate matters with technological salience covered by the nuclear deal.

It should have been Dr Kakodkar who should have led from up front the negotiations on technical arrangements and measures and explained the main features and their rationale to the Government and the general public.

Putting US on test

The result of the Government not taking care to keep scientific opinion on its side right from the beginning was the unprecedented spectacle of all the former Chairmen of the Atomic Energy Commission (who were also Secretaries of the Atomic Energy Department) and Directors of various research institutes and power stations under them joining together to issue an open warning against the many possible ill-effects of the deal, and continuing to be sceptical or lukewarm about its merits to this day, even after the publication of the final texts.

Did the decision of the two countries to set in motion the process of evolving a framework for full civil nuclear cooperation on the lines envisaged by the Bush-Singh declaration and the contents of the finalised deal have the whole-hearted endorsement of the current AEC Chairman, Dr Anil Kakodkar? If so, why could he not carry conviction with his erstwhile colleagues about the need for the deal and its provisions?

On the political plane, the insistence of the US on India toeing its line on foreign policy bodes no good for the country. India must test out the degree of importance the US attaches to its strategic partnership with India by quickly concluding the Iran gas and energy agreement and by abstaining, if not opposing, when the question of sanctions against Iran comes before the IAEA.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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