Nuclear Deal - Part 2

No Hollywood movie is complete without a sequel. True to the spirit of its Hollywood, US has unleashed the second part of the nuclear deal with India. It was so very predictable that the deal was not an end in itself. It was a means to achieve some other ends.

It all started with the G-8 summit, where the US raised its tone and tenor to prohibit non-NPT nations from being supplied nuclear technology. This ran sharply against the things agreed upon in the Nuclear deal, or at least what Indian Government made the people believe about the deal.

Then came the dialogue between the Pakistani and Indian PM at Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt. That, by signing the nuclear deal, India would be made subservient to the US interests, was a foregone conclusion but little did we know that the Indian PM will stoop so low, so soon. The pressure from the western forces, to come up with a joint declaration was so very visible. Terrorism of its worst kind has been unleashed upon India and it is no secret as to where its master-minds are located. Yet, the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan is to be decoupled from terrorism. So may we ask, what are all the future composite dialogues going to discuss about? Kashmir Issue and weather. And as a filler, they will discuss Balochistan terrorism.

Not surprisingly, after the joint declaration, US reassured India that the G-8 statement had no bearing upon the 123-agreement.

If the faux pas at Sharm-El-Sheikh was not enough, close on the heels came the End User Monitoring Agreement (EUMA) with USA. Thanks to this agreement, the Phirangs will be seen snooping at our defense locations smelling/spying for all the confidential information that any sovereign nation should not be sharing with another nation.

All of this makes it so very obvious that the 123-agreement was just a sales pitch to sell to Indian masses, something that runs contrary to its strategic interests. This was Part-1. The second part starts now. The US will exert all kind of pressures on India. I suspect I know the climax of this part. Very soon the Indian government will sign the CTBT and the NPT, thereby putting to an end, whatever remained of India's strategic nuclear interest.

Sonia Gandhi Budget !

There may have been a lot of people surprised or shocked with the projected 6.8% Fiscal Deficit in the Budget Year 09-10. I for one, am not. The budget reflects exactly, the mandate received by the Congress in the Lok Sabha Elections 2009. The mandate is to talk not of economic liberalization, disinvestment of PSUs, etc. The mandate is to follow the leftist stance that the Nehru-Gandhi family always represented. To this extent, this is not a Manmohan Singh budget. This is a Sonia Gandhi budget.

Social Sector spending obviously was expected to escalate. We are back to pre-1991 era. The fiscal deficit is not going to be a concern for the government. The government will continue to be the biggest borrower of money. All that one can hope is that the money laid out for the intended improvement in the standard of living of rural India does not go down the drain, as it has in the past.

Meanwhile, the biggest casualty is the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBM). The goverrnment is going to just pay lip service to FRBM and continue with its extravaganza. Expect the Bond Yields to shoot up. Those who are long on dollars - continue to do so. The rupee should be devaluing even further.