Friends,
The current issue of CNDP (Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace) journal
Peace Now is just going to be out.
Please book your orders with <[email protected]>.
Reproduced below is the Editorial and the Contents.
Sukla
EDITORIAL
It was only on Jan 14 last the "Doomsday Clock was set back one minute, from
11:55 to 11:54, reversing a precipitous slide toward midnight, the zero hour,
ultimate self-destruction." The resetting of the Clock evidently was triggered
by and meant to capture the mood of optimism caused by US President Obama's
call from Prague for a “world without nuclear weapons” on April 4 last year and
commencement of the START negotiations between the US and Russia and also the
United Nations Security Council (UNSC), on September 24 last, passing the
Resolution 1887 with the same Obama in driver's chair.
Not even a month has elapsed since the rather small but still significant
resetting. Yet the mood has again started souring. The tension with Iran is
slowly peaking notwithstanding some confusing and conflicting signals. Even the
START negotiations, after a promising start, remain somewhat bogged down and
seem to have lost the initial momentum. The US Ballistic Missile Defence
programme, on the European soils in particular, has turned out to be the major
nagging point. President Obama’s apparent lack of handle over the legislative
process conducted by the US Congress is seriously undermining the credibility
of his whatever commitments. And, Russia’s just released new military doctrine
identifies NATO and the U.S. as the main sources of security threats. As many
as seven out of total 11 external military threats listed out by the new
doctrine are traced to the West. That’s evidently not too reassuring. Not only
that, on top of all these, the Obama
Administration in its budget proposal has asked for the biggest raise in the
recent years for spending on its warhead programme. And the Vice President Joe
Biden has presented a nuclear vision which runs just counter to the vision of a
world without nuclear weapons. Whatever be the compulsions and calculations,
that’s pretty disturbing.
Nevertheless the momentum for peace and global nuclear disarmament, which is by
no means exclusively dependent on Obama and his moves and mood, and also
fortune, swings, has picked up a bit in the meanwhile. Various international
networks are pulling up their socks keeping the (May) 2010 NPT Review
Conference in focus, but also looking far beyond. A Nuclear Weapons (Abolition)
Conference has emerged as a major rallying demand. The CNDP, in its forthcoming
Tenth Anniversary celebrations from Dec. 9 – 12 later this year in Delhi, is
committed to do its bit to add to this momentum.In this current issue, we have
carried a number of thoughtful articles including one giving out a brief but
fairly comprehensive account of the role of the Indian state vis-à-vis moves
towards global nuclear disarmament, focussing particularly on more recent
developments and the Indo-US Nuclear Deal.
As regards the Indo-US Nuclear Deal itself, the main barrier was crossed and a
major milestone achieved with the special waiver granted by the 45-member
Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to enable India carry out international civil
nuclear trade, denied since the first (peaceful!) nuclear explosion in May 1974
and the barrier gradually going up and up since then particularly in the wake
of the five nuclear explosions in May 1992, on September 6 2008 at the end of
tortuous and acrimonious deliberations marked by virtually open resort to
arm-twisting of and, of course, the offer of huge lucrative deals. With the NSG
waiver, doors have opened for deals with the member countries of this group on
bilateral basis. The subsequent final approval of the 123 Agreement between the
US and India by the US President on October 8 2008 thus became a sort of mere
footnote to the whole process. As we had explicitly noted even earlier, the
very tag “Indo-US Nuclear Deal”,
as a consequence of the NSG waiver preceded by the India-specific safeguard
agreement authored by the IAEA on August 1 2008, has become largely a misnomer,
unless of course applied specifically in the very restricted context of
dealings between the US and India only, except for the fact that it does aptly
capture the history of the whole process and the role of the US as the
principal driver in ending India’s more than three decades long exclusion from
the international nuclear market. Since then India has inked agreements with
Russia, France, the U.S., Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Argentina, Namibia and now
Britain for nuclear reactors, components, technology and fuel.
Consequently, the nuclear power programme in the country is in for a big boost.
To further facilitate the process, and possibly to open up nuclear power
production to private players, a civil nuclear liability cap bill has been
readied by the Union Cabinet in a completely hush-hush manner. The CNDP has
publicly registered its protests. We carry the protest letters to the Prime
Minister of India in this issue along with a brief (technical) summary of the
Indo-US Nuclear deal done by a “think tank” from the US.
While some further hurdles still remain before the US-based companies can
actually have a piece of the Indian pie; Russia and France have forged
considerably ahead. Russia is to supply additional reactors to be installed in
Koodankulam. Also set up a Greenfield plant in Haripur in the Paschim Medinipur
district of West Bengal. Similarly, the Areva of France is to set up a brand
new plant in Jaitapur the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. Considerable
popular resistances have been mobilised at both the sites. We carry a report on
the resistance in Jaitapur/Madban.
We also carry articles on nuclear power in general and the nuclear menace in
South Asia. Before we end, we pay our sincerest tributes to Sri Harekrishna
Debnath, who apart from being the all-India leader of the fishworkers – the
General Secretary of the National Fishworkers Forum since 1985 and subsequently
its Chairperson – was the living spirit behind the massive resistance in
Haripur against the proposed nuclear power plant. Sri Debnath breathed his
last, at the age of 60, in the morning of December 30th last. He had been
suffering from lung cancer which was diagnosed early last year.END
Contents
EDITORIAL / 1
A. Indo-US Nuclear Deal and Fallouts: An Update / 3I. The US-India Nuclear Deal
/ Jayshree BajoriaII. CNDP Appeal against the Proposed Civil Nuclear Liability
[Cap] Bill B. Nuclear Menace and South Asia / 11I. India and Pakistan: Cold
Start for the Hottest War? / J Sri RamanII. An Insecure Arsenal / Praful
BidwaiIII. A Path for Peace in South Asia / Zia Mian C. Nuclear Disarmament:
Global Perspective / 18I. Doomsday Clock Set Back by A Minute / Dan ZakII. The
2010 NPT Review Conference: Forecasting the Outcome / Sergio Duarte, High
Representative for Disarmament Affairs, United NationsIII. Towards 2010 and
Beyond: Challenges for the Non-Proliferation Regime and the Middle East / Sameh
Aboul-Enein IV. A civil society strategy for the 2010 NPT RevCon and beyond:
Proposal for a unified NGO strategy for the 2010 NPT-Review Conference and
beyond / Tilman Ruff et alV. Nagasaki Appeal 2010 / The 4th Nagasaki Global
Citizens’ Assembly for the Elimination of
Nuclear WeaponsVI. India and Global Nuclear Disarmament / Achin Vanaik D.
Nuclear Power Worldwide / 35I. Nuclear power losing in importance world-wideII.
Apology to the Earth for Nuclear Bombs and War / Mary Hamer, M.D E. Threats of
Nuclear Power and Resistance in India / 44I. Nuclear Power in India:
SnapshotsII. India in Transition: The Future of Nuclear Power in India / M. V.
RamanaIII. Some Questions Raised by the Contamination Incident at Kaiga Nuclear
Power Plant / Surendra GadekarIV. Time to Honour the Deal? People on Guard
against Dispossession and Worse / Mihir BhonsaleV. Protest Petition to the
President of India against New Uranium Mining and Nuclear Power Plants
Peace Is Doable
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