Grumbles and murmurs

Nearly a week after the prime minister said he would reveal the details of the India-US nuclear agreement in the coming Parliament session, a clutch of retired ambassadors living in Bangalore have demanded that the government come clean on the deal.

Nearly a week after the prime minister said he would reveal the details of the India-US nuclear agreement in the coming Parliament session, a clutch of retired ambassadors living in Bangalore have demanded that the government come clean on the deal. In a rambling statement, full of innuendo posed as queries, the former officials appear to be not just second guessing the government, but also suggesting a lack of confidence in the government’s ability to uphold India’s national interest. They, of course, have the right to do so, as much as any citizen of India has to express his own views on the subject. But most of them cannot claim any special expertise on the issue. They have been retired for quite a while and even when in service, they would have been the first to argue that only those in the know — like them at that time — could form perspectives on a ‘sensitive’ issues.

HT Image

One hint as to their attitude comes from the fact that most of them left service around the time the Cold War ended and their careers spanned the period when the core of Indian foreign policy was supposedly centred on the Non- Aligned Movement. That era is now gone forever. In today’s world, characterised by interdependence and globalisation, alleged adversaries like China and the US are each others biggest trading partners. The ‘Evil Empire’ of its time, Russia is a member of the G-8. This is the world that challenges the diplomacy of today, as indeed does a borderless phenomenon called terrorism.

Government agreements, sensitive or otherwise, are not negotiated in the public domain. In our parliamentary democracy, the government of the day has the right to parley — and finalise a deal — on behalf of the country. Convention dictates that the issue be debated in Parliament. But unlike the American system, the agreement does not have to be ratified in either House of Parliament. The parties that are not satisfied — or are of the persuasion that the government is selling out the country — are, of course, free to move a motion and bring down the government. Or, if they are ordinary citizens, vote against it in the next general elections.