भारत को न्यूक्लियर सप्लायर ग्रुप का सदस्य बनाने की अमेरिकी कोशिशों से असहमत न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स ने सम्पादकीय लिखा है, जिसमें कहा गया है कि भारत को पहले एनपीटी पर दस्तखत करने चाहिए। इस सम्पादकीय में कही गई बातों पर सिद्धार्थ वरदराजन ने अपनी वैबसाइट 'द वायर' में पैरा-दर-पैरा जवाब लिखा है। दोनों ही आलेख पठनीय हैं और इस मसले से जुड़े सवालों पर रोशनी डालते हैं। पहले पढ़ें न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स का सम्पादकीय और फिर सिद्धार्थ वरदराजन का लेख
No Exceptions for a Nuclear India
By THE EDITORIAL BOARDJUNE 4, 2016
America’s relationship with India has blossomed under President Obama, who will meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week. Ideally, Mr. Obama could take advantage of the ties he has built and press for India to adhere to the standards on nuclear proliferation to which other nuclear weapons states adhere.
The problem, however, is that the relationship with India rests on a dangerous bargain. For years, the United States has sought to bend the rules for India’s nuclear program to maintain India’s cooperation on trade and to counter China’s growing influence. In 2008, President George W. Bush signed a civilian nuclear deal with India that allowed it to trade in nuclear materials. This has encouraged Pakistan to keep expanding a nuclear weapons program that is already the fastest growing in the world.
The New York Times Trips Up on India and the NSG
India must be held accountable for the commitments it made in 2005, when the nuclear deal with the United States was first struck, and not for the sins of others.
The New York Times is free to take whatever position it likes on any issue and if it believes India should not be admitted into the Nuclear Suppliers Group, it has every right to write an editorial advocating ‘No Exceptions for a Nuclear India’.
What it ought not to do is build its argument on faulty analysis, misrepresentation and factual inaccuracies. What follows is a paragraph-by-paragraph explanation of how the newspaper – that I have read and liked for years – has gone wrong, horribly wrong in this editorial.
Para 1
America’s relationship with India has blossomed under President Obama, who will meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week. Ideally, Mr. Obama could take advantage of the ties he has built and press for India to adhere to the standards on nuclear proliferation to which other nuclear weapons states adhere.
Here, the NYT makes a huge assumption: that there are “standards on nuclear proliferation to which other nuclear weapons states adhere” and to which India doesn’t. The ‘other nuclear weapons states’ are the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain (the N-5). The main standard to which the N-5 are meant to adhere is the prescription set out in Article 1 of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) to not provide nuclear weapons or knowhow or assistance to non-nuclear weapon states. Article 6 also applies to them but is
non-binding: to “pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.”
