18 months

Let8217;s not talk about the nuclear deal. Even though the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi did yesterday and have been doing so off and on since the Left upped the ante during the endgame of a two-year long negotiation. Let8217;s instead talk politics. And ask the Congress a question. For the purposes of the argument we will go along with the PM8217;s freshest take on the subject, which is that there8217;s life even without completing the nuclear deal. But what kind of a life?

The PM and Mrs Gandhi need no one to tell them that the Left8217;s many arguments about the unsuitability of the nuclear deal are symptomatic of a fundamental policy-political critique. For one, the Left is questioning this government8217;s foreign policy. Indeed, the committee set up after the PM-Karat stand-off on the deal had foreign policy as part of its agenda. Eighteen months, roughly the time left for this government, is a very long time in politics and international relations. How many times will the Congress feel the need to correct its course on hearing a publicly articulated snub on a strategic decision? How does the Congress think the country will interpret its conduct over the next 18 months? Is this a contradiction that can be solved by merely putting the nuclear deal on ice? Because the Left, once it raised the stakes, is being consistent 8212; it wants the Congress to change its world view on how India should act on the world8217;s stage. The Congress will be making one of most extraordinary political errors ever witnessed if it reckons committees can brush everything under the carpet.

Bear in mind that this government has already ceded a large amount of economic policy freedom, although it must be said, and thanks to Dr Singh and his few reformist ministers, no major harm has been done despite considerable pressure. So a coalition of this sort, having gone through what it has over the last few months, is a dispiritingly strange kind of ruling arrangement. Therefore, if the Congress has decided that the next 18 months are worth living as the ruling party, it must also decide how best to change the parameters of this coexistence. The modus vivendi being hinted at now is patently insufficient in terms of meeting some of the basic requirements of meaningful governance. To be sure, finding a different way will be tough. But life for the Congress under the conditions prevailing now will be much, much tougher.