Shamsa Ashfaq

Recently signed nuclear agreement between India and Japan came on the back of India’s civil nuclear deal signed with US in 2008. The Indo-Japan nuclear deal is triumphed widely among Indian media, state authorities and their foreign allies but seen with skepticism and concern by many others beyond the borders. Primarily, the deal has undermined the already fragile state of peace and stability in the region and secondly it has consolidated the fact that the US and west are poised to favour Indian nuclear ambitions indiscriminately in south Asian region. Pro-deal lobby claims the agreement to be an indication that Japan has now come to recognize India as a responsible nuclear power and acknowledges the country’s reasons for developing its nuclear arsenal.
It is responsible nuclear India, which is discreetly giving training to students and scientists of North Korea in specific fields of nuclear technology, missiles and aerospace development programmes. Not to forget here that Indian collaboration is with same North Korea that is for long been a key challenge for the global nuclear nonproliferation regime. This clandestine collaboration between the two countries was exposed in March 2016 in an annual report to the United Nation Security Council (UNSC). Report further revealed that one of the students under training in Indian national aerospace development administration has played a key role in nuclear development programme. Similarly, training imparted to students and scientists helped North Korea’s missile programme. It is pertinent to note here that North Korea blatantly kept sending scientists and space employees to India even after the UN issued the first set of nuclear sanctions on it in year 2006, which prohibits member countries from providing technical training to North Korea in the fields related to nuclear development. Hence, violation of the UN clause not only repudiates India’s status as a responsible nuclear state but also disqualifies her for NSG membership.
Other than that, ‘responsible’ India has highly poor record of nuclear safety and security protocols. There are abundant examples of oil leaks, hydrogen leaks, fires and high bearing vibrations, which often shut down number of nuclear reactors in India. It is both interesting and ironic that India was the first country to announce that Fukushima disaster on March 14, 2011 was not a “nuclear accident”. In the wake of Japan’s 2011 nuclear disaster, Indian nuclear establishment was forced to initiate a safety audit process conducted within by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL). After the extensive review, Indian Auditor General informed that the nuclear program of the country is insecure and unregulated with many disorders. Recent on the list of leakages was an emergency declared, on the fifth anniversary of Fukushima disaster, at the Kakrapar nuclear plant in Gujarat near Surat after a major heavy water leak in a nuclear reactor. Other than this, there are six major incidents of malfunctioning, leakage of radioactive materials, sale of uranium, fire, emergency shut down etc of Indian nuclear reactors and yet India is ‘responsible’.
There were widespread protests when the Kudankulam nuclear power plant was being built with Russian assistance in the State of Tamil Nadu, especially from the fishermen community residing near the plant, because of the fear of radiation leaks. Similarly, there were protests by local villagers against the building of Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project in Ratnagiri district in the State of Maharashtra. Such protests came because people fear of Fukushima and Chernobyl-like incidents to take place in India. New Delhi’s insensitivity towards the fears and sentiments of its own people speak volumes of its higher nuclear aspirations. No wonder, so-ambitious yet poorly guarding nuclear India garners higher chances of nuclear material falling in the hands of extremists that are bent upon cleansing their soil of non-hindus. Certainly “responsible” India as propagated by the US and West for their own stakes is not so responsible a nuclear State. Before pushing the world into a nuclear disaster, it is the responsibility of global powers and disarmament regime to act sane.