Atomic atma

Politics will gain so much if BJP rediscovers the soul of sensible politics over the nuclear deal...

Welcome as L.K.

Advani8217;s reworking 8212; in this newspaper on Monday 8212; of the BJP8217;s nuclear policy position is, it is necessary to ask what the party was doing for so long. The question is crucial for predicting whether the course correction suggested by Advani will take hold. Remember that during the months of the BJP8217;s radioactive opposition to the deal there have been statements like that from Yashwant Sinha, who said after India8217;s vote against Iran at the IAEA that this country can8217;t be America8217;s client. V.S. Achuthanandan, forget Prakash Karat, would have been proud of that statement. Whatever had allowed that kind of politics to emerge can8217;t coexist with what Advani is attempting now. Therefore a pre-condition for an effective makeover of the BJP8217;s nuclear deal policy is that everyone is on the same page, a difficult job considering that some BJP leaders have seemed to be on a different planet when talking about the issue. If, a big if, the BJP can communicate the change convincingly and if its parliamentary conduct reflects that, Indian politics will become what it should be on big issues 8212; a bipartisan consensus that allows for some differences.

The Congress will be relieved at one level but at the level of the electoral manager it will be disheartened. As our columnist argues today, the BJP sacrificing the big picture at the altar of clauses and sub-clauses was an electoral gift to the Congress. Manmohan Singh deserves the bump in his personal ratings for pushing the deal. But privately even the prime minister would surely admit that Advani8217;s party helped him no end. If Advani has now realised that it is not the BJP8217;s job to help the Congress, the Congress will realise that it can8217;t get the Left to fight with it against the BJP on this issue and the Left will realise it no longer has the comfort of invoking parliamentary conscience against the deal. It will be, if the BJP plays it right, a straight Congress-BJP fight over how best to sequence the deal8217;s various steps. This is, let us remind the BJP once again, how it should always have been.

As for Advani8217;s specific suggestion 8212; that India sanctifies its strategic non-negotiables by putting them in the Atomic Energy Act 8212; it certainly deserves wide debate. When the BJP is asked whether such amendments are necessary and even if they are whether they should be taken up before IAEA and NSG negotiations, the party will know it is being taken seriously again.