American arms, Indian skies

I think the hallmark of the tenure of the United Regressive Alliance at the helm of government in India has been the unprecedented expansion of economic, political and military ties with the United States. Oh, did I say United Regressive Alliance? I am sorry, I meant United Progressive Alliance.

President Bush has visited the country, so has President Barry, and Prime Minister Singh has been there a few times. All in all, a very fledgling and promising relationship. The hallmark of this relationship, at least for the UPeeA government, would have been the nuclear deal, which has gained so much attention in the media and the general public. A major issue was the compensation structure in the deal, which earlier, more or less allowed the operator to get away without paying any major damages should a disaster occur. Due to active civil involvement, the government backtracked on this clause. As I've already written earlier, the nuclear lobby of the world has gone to great lengths to convince everyone that nuclear energy is the way forward, its very safe, and does not harm the environment as much as, if at all, say energy obtained from coal. Of course, the Japanese who are battling the nuclear reactor in Fukushima will tell you exactly how much control humankind has over the technology.

Then comes Jaitapur. The fairly well updated wikipedia page on the proposed nuclear power plant site there is a good source of information on the controversy, and if I may say, the eagerness with which the various governments and corporations want to go ahead with it. The plant will cost over Rs. 100,000 crores! If it ever gets built, I hope that whoever gets that electricity will savour it to its fullest! Jaitapur is supposed to be the big landmark in Indian and French relations, given that the deal was signed in the presence of Mr. Sarkozy and Mr. Singh.

Everybody says its one of the best things to happen to India's energy security and independence. A lot of people say otherwise, but somehow their voice gets muffled out when it faces the power of big government and money of big corporation. Among the many issues such as loss of livelihood, destruction of nature and fear of radiation, a big question mark remains on the technology itself. The technology that Areva proposed for the plant hasn't been implemented in any nuclear plant anywhere in the world! So with this untested technology, they aim to build the largest nuclear power plant complex in the world! Yep, lets pick a third world country with money to pay for it, of course.

Okay, I am quoting Economic and Political Weekly here, which some might point out as a rabid left leaning publication, but surely the big stakeholders in this episode can't get away from the real questions by simply blaming petty NGO's, vested interests or anything of that sort. Even in my previous post on nuclear energy, I had mentioned this statistic that nuclear energy production in the world is actually falling annually. Now with falling production, rising unpopularity, and now Fukushima, it makes sense for developing nations to stop, take a pause and look more closely at this nuclear energy hardsell by the developed nations and their big corporations!

This post was supposed to be on India's MMRCA deal, but I meandered into nuclear energy! I actually wanted to use this example of Jaitapur and push for nuclear energy in India to lead to my point that it is not easy being a friend to the United States government. With that, there comes the cajoling, hardselling of goods (in this case nuclear energy), acceptance of previously unacceptable policies (WTO is one area where India regularly stands up against the US) and reversal of stances (Iran) that previously went against your American friend. All this I can see around me. This report was recently published in Live Mint saying that its quite possible Air India was forced to buy the Boeing jets that it ordered a few years ago. Even then, it didn't make economic sense for a carrier saddled with debt and busting at the seams with people to order over a hundred brand new jets!

In addition, India purchased C-130J tactical transport aircraft from Lockheed Martin, C-17 Globemaster strategic heavy lift aircraft from Boeing, a Landing craft, now named INS Jalashwa for the Navy, and a lot more heavy purchases could be in the pipeline. But the big daddy of all purchases was indeed going to the over USD 10 billion Multi-role Medium Combat Aircraft deal which has been in the works for over a decade now, with its usual share of shady behind the scene shenanigans, accusations and possibly lots of kickbacks. Hmm, it seems kickbacks and the Congress party have this deep relationship that just refuses to die.

So there were six aircrafts in the fray - American F-16 Super Viper from Lockheed Martin,  F/A-18 Super Hornet from Boeing, French Rafale from Dassault, Swedish Gripen from Saab, Eurofighter Typhoon from the European consortium EADS, and the Russian Mig-35. 

This prolonged process, which at one time was on the verge of being cancelled for the second time a few years ago when some important documents disappeared only to be found later on the side of a south Delhi road (conspiracies at the highest levels!), finally saw some sort of closure when it became clear that India has selected the French Rafale and the Eurofighter Typhoon as the only two planes left in the competition.

So that leaves the American firms out, and boy are they pissed! How dare does their newest friend not give them the tender? Well, that seems to be kinds of sounds coming from various corners lately. Such was the apparent importance of this deal that the US Ambassador to India resigned! I am already unhappy to see India fly and use American weapons, but had this deal gone to the Americans, it would probably make a part of me sad eternally. It would have been an eternal reminder of the way the Congress government bent over backwards to appease the US Government. And I will not be surprised if there will be objections and spanners are put in the works in the next few months. Somehow, I am quite surprised that the Government of India actually let this happen, because my first intuition would be to think that surely the UPeeA would try to ensure, on its own accord, or under pressure, to have at least one from Lockheed or Boeing remain in the race.

But no matter, India has to think for India, and given the past with the sanctions, the denial of technology, espionage, bugging of devices, and numerous codes and agreements perhaps only helped worsen the US Government's cause. All good I say, because the IAF loves its Mirages, and the Rafale has many similarities, and the Eurofighter, well, comes loaded with technology transfer and probably lots of other goodies. Beautiful planes too!