Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
USA has since many years been conspiring to clamp its nuclear policies on India. Now it has got a great collaborator in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Antagonism to communism being their common creed, USA has always used Indian right-wingers to advance its interests in this country. The first organized political platform available to it was the Swatantra Party. When USA was admittedly busy in supplying arms to Pakistan to help it grab Kashmir by force, the founder of this party C. Rajgopalachari (Rajaji) had openly pleaded for transfer of Kashmir to Pakistan.
The Communists had aggressively foiled that evil design and peoples of India had so resolutely opposed Swatantra Party that its leaders had to extinguish it to save their own skin. This Party was obliterated from political scenario of India. But its Kashmir stand was a proof of how this rightist party was acting as agent of USA and trying to brainwash people to accept American hegemony.
The country had to suffer the trauma of witnessing assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 when she was the Prime Minister for the fourth term and Mr. Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991 when he was going to be the Prime Minister for the second term. Both of them were assassinated in manners as meticulous and mysterious as only a super power organization can plan and carry out.
When to many people, even though the alleged assassins in both the cases have been punished, the real brains behind the ghastly crimes are not yet taken to task, to everybody it is well known that both the assassinated leaders, in latter parts of their respective political careers, had emerged as strong obstacles to advancing tentacles of USA.
After Rajiv Gandhi was wiped out, his widow, now quite conspicuous with her support to the nuke deal that “is so clearly in interest of US of America”, stayed so stoic that the Congress party under utter confusion had to agree to P. V. Narasimha Rao taking over as the Prime Minister.
Rao created history by being sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment with Rs.100, 000 cash fine, convicted for criminal “conspiracy” and “abatement” in the ill-famed JMM Bribe Case filed by the CBI. He could escape the punishment due to prosecution’s lackluster response to his appeal in the high court level, but he shall remain forever a black spot on Indian democracy and people will always remember that he was sentenced as above for having committed offenses under Section 120b of the Indian Penal Code (criminal conspiracy) read with Sections 7, 12, 13(2) and 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act as well as substantive offenses under Section 12 for abetment to the crime of bribery. His was an offense against the country but he was not charged for that. He had committed this offense against the country in order only to remain in power.
His remaining in power with Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee as his aids in the cabinet was necessary for USA. Looking back to Mrs. Gandhi’s Prime Ministerial days would help understand this phenomenon.
Mrs. Gandhi’s political partnership with the Communist Party of India had defined India’s progress towards socialism so much that the Constitution of India in its Preamble acquired absolute clarity on its objectives by expanding “Sovereign Democratic Republic” to “Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic”.
For USA, epitome of imperialism, this was the most invincible hurdle in grabbing India. There was no scope to change the Preamble, because the Constitution of India is such formulated and worded that any provision thereof may be amended, but not the objective. And, amending the provisions for amendment of the Constitution is no more a matter of simple majority in Parliament. Therefore, a conspiracy was cooked up to sabotage the Preamble by rendering it inconsequential. Singh and Mukherjee helped Rao to carry out this conspiracy. Liberalization of Indian economy and opening up Indian market to foreign trade in the guise of economic reforms were the tools.
The nation has seen how Rao’s two ministers Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee, had proved very helpful to USA by signing on dotted lines and singing to its tune in matters of GATT and WTO and refusing to place details in the Parliament.
Disgusted of this foul play, peoples of India had rejected Congress in the general elections in May 1996; but in their regime, these agents of plutocracy had destroyed democratic equilibrium so savagely that electoral wisdom could not find a clear expression. The right-wingers took advantage of it and Vajpayee took over as the Prime Minister, though for the shortest period in Indian history. But, addition of his name in the succession list of Indian Prime Ministers helped BJP acquire power again at the end of a tumultuous phase of India’s parliamentary life under two successive Prime Ministers of Janata Dal, H.D.Deve Gowda and I.K.Gujral. With the right-wingers occupying power again, USA was encouraged to advance for netting in India to its nuclear design. Vajpayee had readily agreed.
Voters of India rejected Vajpayee when he was forced to seek a fresh mandate on which he could have proceeded to sign the nuke deal with USA. So, peoples of India, by refusing a fresh mandate to Vajpayee, had refused to accept American nuke proposals.
Manmohan Singh betrayed peoples’ mandate by signing the nuke deal with the USA. The people of India could only came to know of it when, not to the Parliament but to a journalist, he disclosed that the deal is “sealed, signed and non-negotiable” and as if fidgeting, simultaneously he declared, “It is an honourable deal, the cabinet has approved it, we cannot go back on it. I told them – the Communists – to do whatever they want to do, if they want to withdraw support, so be it,” (Singh’s interview published in the Telegraph on 11.8.2007)
Why did he fidget? It was because, he was eager to hide the Hyde Act from the peoples of India as the nuke deal is the offspring of this Act that has in-built mischief to control India’s independence in nuke programs and foreign relations. He fidgeted, because, he had made the deal “sealed, signed and non-negotiable” without consent of Indian Parliament, even though the consent was a must requirement to proceed with the deal. As the World Nuclear News divulged, for the deal to materialize, “The Indian Parliament must agree to the text” of the Hyde Act. But Singh did never place the Act before the Indian Parliament lest it may disagree to the text thereof and under pressure from business houses, made it “sealed, signed and non-negotiable”.
According to the President of Indo-US Business Council, Ron Somers, the American bill for the deal “lays the foundation for major trade and investment opportunities in India for U.S. companies. As many as 27,000 high-quality jobs each year each year for the next 10 years will be created in the U.S. nuclear industry alone.” Reuters quoting US top source reported on August 25, 2007 that the deal is a “bonanza for US firms”. This suffices to have an idea of how business lobby mounted on Prime Minister Singh and steered him into signing the deal.
This being the position, the scenarios that we witnessed till withdrawal of leftists’ support was mere drama serials of hoodwinking Indian peoples.
After the withdrawal of leftists’ support, as live telecasted from the Lok Sabha Hall and as peoples of India deeply suspect, wads of slush money cultivated confidence votes for a Prime Minister that has helped USA succeed in clamping its nuclear policies on India.
Come the elections, the USA won’t be able to help Singh retain his position; one may safely predict it knowing Indians’ disposition.
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