I don’t give a damn!

If anything has come out from last week's NSG waiver for India its this: the Congress has finally achieved something in its four-year reign, while its opponents, the Left and BJP have lost much of the ammunition they would've used to ensure its defeat in the forthcoming state and national elections. The BJP still says that we may have indirectly lost the right to test our indigenously built nuclear weapons. The Congress refutes such notions and says that there is no mention of a bar on testing. The entire thing will be clear once the text is made available shortly. I am surprised at the opposition's failure to notice a hidden plot behind this so-called success story. For all I care, this Congress-led government had been at the mercy of the Left for four years. Repeated blackmail by the Left parties ensured the Congress fell in line, each time it tried flexing its muscles.

Finally, the government broke up with the Left and braced itself for an acid test on the floor of the house. Finally, even with the Left opposing in the no-confidence motion, the Congress government sailed through with plenty to spare. They had the bases covered. They had the numbers. If they did have them, then why did they wait for four years to break this uneasy relationship and take a so-called risk by opting for the no-confidence motion? If they were really interested in India's energy security, why didn’t they opt for the motion in their first year? If they were ready to risk the government after four years, why didn’t they do it at the start itself? In fact they only did it because of pressure from Washington DC. The point is simple, public memory in our country is short. The voters will see this waiver as the biggest success story ever. The Congress will come to power yet again in the centre, and with greater numbers. Their slogan will be - "Aap hamein vote do, hum aapko bijli denge". Congress party is a master of making fools of the voters. It has been doing it since our country got independence. All the parties do it, it’s only that the Congress do it more than others. And there are certain newspapers in our country that openly flaunt their vendetta (against the BJP) and provide maximum coverage to the Congress party. These media persons are more to blame than the political parties themselves as they influence voters to vote for a particular party.

As for a common man like me, nothing has improved in the quality of life. We still have to endure sky-high prices, high taxes, potholed roads, polluted air, long traffic jams, normal interruptions in electricity and water supply, increased crime and accidents, you name it The waiver is irrelevant to me. If anything, I hope we only purchase raw nuclear material to upgrade the capacity of our existing nuclear plants, and continue to improve our own nuclear technology. We are a country of more than a billion people and surely there must some young braniacs out there in the IITs with bright ideas. Why must we depend on the G-8 nations for their nuclear technology after all? This development certainly does not show us as an emerging power.