The National Alliance of People’s Movements, a
network of over two hundred people’s movements in
India working for social and economic justice,
believes that the India-US nuclear deal has grave
consequences for India’s national security and
sovereignty, for India’s relations with its
neighbours, for India’s economy, for the health
of its people and for the state of its
environment. It will directly impact the rights
and well-being of the people of India for
generations to come. On the anniversary of Quit
India call given in 1942 and the atomic bombing
of Nagasaki, we demand that the Government of
India withdraw from the India-US nuclear deal and
reject strategic partnership with the United
States.

Democracy

In July 2005, President George Bush and Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a deal to
exempt India from US laws and international rules
that for almost three decades have sought to
prevent states from using commercial imports of
nuclear technology and fuel to aid their nuclear
weapons ambitions. These rules were created
because India secretly used nuclear materials and
technology that it acquired for peaceful purposes
to make a nuclear weapon. The deal is of profound
importance since it allows for India to import
nuclear fuel, reactors and other technologies,
and will enable India to expand both its nuclear
weapons and nuclear energy programme.

The US Congress took a year and half to discuss
and approve the new US policy and change existing
US laws to enable nuclear commerce with India. In
India, the government simply told parliament that
it had made a deal with the United States.
Subsequently, the US and have negotiated a ’123
agreement’’ a treaty that will cover nuclear
cooperation between the two countries. But while
this agreement will have to be approved by the US
Congress, India’s parliament will not be allowed
a vote on it.

NAPM believes that the people of India have been
denied the right to debate the nuclear deal and
the larger changes in foreign policy and other
issues that it involves, and to express their
opinion through their elected representatives.
The nuclear agreement should not be accepted
under these circumstances.

Foreign policy

The United States sees the nuclear deal with
India as part of a process of building a
strategic relationship between the two countries.
The US seeks to use India as a client state in
its new confrontation with a rising China and to
achieve other strategic goals, for example
putting pressure on Iran.

NAPM believes that India should not compromise
its national sovereignty or its long standing
tradition of an independent non-aligned foreign
policy. The India-US strategic partnership and
the nuclear deal in particular will escalate the
nuclear arms race between Pakistan and India, and
upset the India-Pakistan peace process. It will
also create serious tensions between India and
China, instead of helping improve relations. The
deal with the US also threatens India’s relations
with Iran, which the US considers to be a rogue
state. The US in particular is opposed to an
Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline that could
improve political and economic relations among
these three countries and provide relatively
cheap, clean energy to India.

Economy

The US - India nuclear deal was first announced
as part of a larger package of agreements that
included a commitment to "deepen the bilateral
economic relationship” between the US and India,
and create in India an enhanced “investment
climate“so that”opportunities for investment
will increase." The US sees India as an
increasingly important source of cheap labour and
high profits for its corporations.

NAPM believes that privileging business interests
means pursuing neo-liberal economic policies
which favour the interests of Indian and US
corporations. These policies include the creation
of Special Economic Zones and other such measures
that come at the cost of the poor. These policies
have been followed for almost twenty years and
have failed. In 2006, India was ranked at number
126 among 177 nations according to the United
Nations Human Development Index. NAPM believes
India should follow policies that will promote a
just and equitable social and economic
development aimed at meeting the needs of India’s
poor and disadvantaged.

Energy

The nuclear deal assumes that nuclear energy is
an economic and safe way for producing
electricity for India. Nuclear energy has failed
in India and offers no solution for the future.
After 60 years of public funding Department of
Atomic Energy (DAE) produces less than 3% of
India’s electricity. For comparison, in less than
a decade and without state support, wind energy
now accounts for about 5% of India’s electricity
capacity.

To escape its failures, the DAE plans to import
large nuclear power plants and fuel. The US,
France, Russia and Japan hope to profit from
this. This pursuit of nuclear energy comes
despite that fact that the cost of producing
nuclear electricity in India is higher than
non-nuclear alternatives and each reactor adds to
the risk of a serious nuclear accident and
worsens the problem of radioactive nuclear waste.
The DAE’s budget is ten times more than the
budget for development of renewable energy
technologies. India must reverse its priorities
and invest more in wind, solar, biomass and micro
hydel energy resources.

NAPM believes that the real energy challenge
facing India is to meet the needs of the majority
of Indians who still live in its villages. India
needs an energy policy that works with the rural
poor to develop and provide the small-scale,
local, sustainable and affordable energy systems
that they need. Renewable energy resources are
better suited to fulfill this need.

Major General (Retd.) Sudhir Vombatkere, D.
Gabriele, Aruna Roy, Medha Patkar, Sr. Celia,
Suniti S.R., Ulka Mahajan, Mukta Srivastava,
Thomas Kocherry, N.D. Koli, Sanjay M.G, Anand
Mazgoankar, Geetha Ramakrishnan, P.
Chennaiah, Arundhati Dhuru, Hussain P.T., Uma
Shankari, Sandeep Pande