Flu and Nuclear Deal

I am resting at my house for the last 2 days. Havent taken a single step outside. Because I suspect I might have flu. Now any indian reader would be alarmed but I have learnt that viral fever is called flu here in USA.

But the symptoms are not too severe. Just mild weakness and sore throat. And I am resting more as a precauting and subconsciously to avoid doing an assignment :-)

The nuclear deal signed by Bush and Singh is certainly a very important milestone for India. From the criticism to this deal on both the US and Indian side, it is clearly either a disastrous deal for both country or good for both. I think it is the latter.

I have been reading lots of reviews about how much benefit it is to India. I was intrigued with what benefits USA will get. I must say that the benefits that I think USA gets are not obvious.

First benefit, USA will have a realistic control on India's short term nuclear capabilities. 14 out of 22 are a lot of reactors for the short term. It will take atleast 5 or more years to build more reactors which can be used for military purposes. So for the short term, USA will get to know exactly how India's nuclear program is going on. And they might not be having that good information. Remember Pokhran.

Well, from Pokhran comes another benefit. Remember CIA admitting that Pokhran was an intelligence failure and they blamed the lack of human intelligence(humint). Well this deal also gives a chance for the USA to get humint into Indian nuclear industry and programme.

Apart from these obscure benefits, which I wanted to bring to the attention of the rare readers of this blog, there are obviously those which have been thrown up by editorials, analysis etc. Things like India as a curtailing influence to the growth of china etc.

To summarize, the nuclear deal is certainly good for India. And I think USA has only accepted reality and will also benefit in the long run. And the joke that Bush got mangoes for India's uranium is just that. A good joke. Bush got more than that. But maybe in the end, India is the winner. And all credits to indian negotiators.


Well, I think it has been a heavy blog entry. Maybe illness does that to a person. I hope that my illness doesnt prevent me from a little bit of friday fun.

acchoo!