Delay Kudankulam by 8 weeks, no harm done

[unhappycamper]

http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/2014/03/23/delay-kudankulam-by-8-weeks-no-harm-done/

Delay Kudankulam by 8 weeks, no harm done

Russia may not have a business culture of bribing customers abroad, especially for its high-tech products, but the movers and shakers in Delhi have a robust reputation for being ‘Ten Percent Men’ while negotiating India’s mega deals with foreign countries. Therefore, eyebrows will be raised by the reports that the two countries are planning to sign the ‘techno-commercial agreement’ relating to the multi-billion dollar Kudankulam 3 and 4 reactors. (Times).

Presumably, the agreement will be signed during the visit by the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, the powerful oil czar of Russia, who is for that express purpose extending at the last-minute his Asian tour to Japan, South Korea and Vietnam and heading for Delhi.

Why the unseemly rush? This was an agreement that should have been signed much, much earlier had there been political will, and the impression becomes unavoidable that this is now a belated Congress Party decision rather than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s.

At a time when political parties are accumulating assets for their war chests ahead of the upcoming April-May poll, the signing of such a mega deal will raise suspicions. Delhi could have deferred this move by another 8 or 10 weeks and the roof wouldn’t have come crashing down. Why drag the India-Russia ’strategic and privileged partnership’ into a scam?