India's Energy Policy

puneets · Post by **puneets** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 7:23 am

It is being reported in "The Hindu" that Iran has called off the LNG pipeline deal in repsone to India's vote for the IAEA resolution on Iran's nuclear program .
Do you think that India has sufficient guarantees from the US for its long term energy needs ? Will the pipeline deal be a big blow for us in the long term ?

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 7:50 am

The pipeline deal should not be much of a blow for us, because the deal really benefitted Pakistan far more than us. It would have been no cheaper to pipe the gas to India from Iran than to bring it by ship. The Iran-Pakistan (or Turkmenistan-Pakistan) pipeline isn't viable unless it extends to India -- something that Mani Aiyar should emphasise much more in his public pronouncements.
We have alternative sources of gas -- Bangladesh (if they're being friendlier), Burma, Qatar (a solid US ally) and Indonesia. The longer-term relationship with Iran is quite important, though, as the Shia nations are natural allies of ours when things are getting hot with Pakistan. And we do use Iran as a transhipment point for exports to Pakistan and Afghanistan; but Iran is unlikely to disrupt this as Iran too benefits from that transhipment.

Post by **jayakris** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 1:28 pm

Hey, look, sometimes we need to act like the bad boy or bully. People only takes you serious when you do that. The whole world suddenly remembered that India existed, when we went and did the second nuke test. All the goody-goody stuff for sooooo long got us nothing while China the bully (who got a whole ton of momentum/respect from the world thanks to the nice goody-goody attitude of Nehru in early 50s) kept becoming so much more of an important country, even much before they started their economic upswing.

Jay

jaydeep · Post by **jaydeep** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 1:55 pm

But Iranian Embassy denied this news saying that no decision has formally been taken on the issue yet.

Iranian embassy denies gas deal is off

Very good assessment on ongoing issue of India's vote against Iran the resolution approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors in Vienna on September 24.

Iran vote: In the national interest?

Jaydeep.

Post by **jayakris** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 2:08 pm

I was about to post that second article (by Sheela Bhatt) -- I liked this part of it:

(distinguished strategic affairs guru K Subrahmanyam) is confident the US Congress will approve Bush's demand for a change in US laws to facilitate the nuclear deal with India. But there are many senior diplomats asking the Singh government what the guarantee is that the US will not come asking for more after tasting blood once.

"Dismiss such arguments and ask instead, does India want to become a big power? Do you want to go up? Then, you can't vote for a country (Iran) which intends to make bombs in your neighbourhood," says an official in the national security apparatus.

PRECISELY. If we are to be the big boys, we need to show the strength to do things that are in our interests and stop thinking that US will be able to just hold us for ransom in anything. We ARE the big boys. Act like it. The communists would rather just have China do it for us (Ha!) ..

Another quote,

Another well-known Pakistan expert argues, "How can India afford to have two Islamic countries with nuclear bombs in its neighbourhood?"

A senior member of the Prime Minister's Office is more restrained in his arguments: "This issue should be seen in perspective. India does not hate Iran. India is acting to enhance its national interest."

India had and continues to have grouses against Iran. The PMO official says, "It's absolutely in India's national interest to know all about what transpired between Pakistan and Iran to build Iran's nuclear capability with the help of scientist A Q Khan." Iran, exactly like Pakistan in the 1970s, is clandestinely developing its nuclear capability. India's vote, which is perceived as pro-US, can also embarrass the latter (Pakistan) if the same resolution brings to light Iran and Pakistan's clandestine nuclear dealings

There you go .. I love what Manmohan Singh did. It is about time we stopped worrying about the US and started doing something that shows that we are truly non-aligned and not "aligned" to just the Shia cause or muslim-countries' causes like we were with the Russian causes once (none of which got us anything much over the years - with the US, you know that if you can play the game, they are willing to play with you to outsmart you or get outsmarted).

Jay

jaydeep · Post by **jaydeep** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 1:21 pm

Another excellent article by M K Bhadrakumar, he is a former Indian ambassador with extensive experience in handling India's relations with Iran.

'India was our friend'

Jaydeep.

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 4:21 am

It took courage for Manmohan Singh to vote in India's national interest at the IAEA, and I commend him for remaining steadfastly committed to our national interest (even in the face of opposition from cabinet colleagues like Mani Aiyar, possibly party leader Sonia, and the vociferous opposition of the anti-national Left Front). India is not a signatory to the NPT, while Iran is. Iran (like North Korea) has breached its obligations as a member of the NPT and should be reprimanded for it. India did the right thing by stiffening its spine and voting against a friend (Iran) when it had clearly strayed from its treaty obligations.

Of course the biggest breaches of the NPT have been committed by China, which shared its nuclear technology with North Korea and Pakistan, especially the latter. While nuclear experts the world over (and especially in the US) have known about this for a long time (and highlighted it in press reports following Pakistan's nuclear tests), the NPT has effectively been rendered meaningless by the IAEA and US failure to take any action against the leading transgressor of the treaty. (If you ever try to write to western media outlets like the FT and IHT about this, your letter is very unlikely to be published, such is the power of China over the world's supposedly free press! Anyone who wants their 'paper to circulate in China exercises extreme self-restraint).

puneets · Post by **puneets** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 6:37 am

I don't know if this is the right thread.

So what do you guys feel about the Indo-US nuke deal ? What all concessions will we have to give to US in order to cement this deal ?

India1989 · Post by **India1989** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 10:53 am

I really don't understand the nuke deal. It is kind of confusing. Only I understand that they want civilian and military nuclear companies to be combined into 1. like DRDO and ISRO into one. That's what they want.

i would be happy if some one actually summarizes it to me.

I don't want the article.

I think this is a suitable article. Cause nuclear is also a type of energy.

India1989 · Post by **India1989** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 1:32 am

Hey do you guys know that Indian oil companies are really close in finding oil and natural gas in West Bengal and Assam. If they find it, it would be real good.