Basu okays N-deal, signals comrades to dilute hard red line

When asked how he regarded the Prime Minister’s statement in Parliament yesterday, he just mentioned, ‘‘okay.’’ It was fair indication that opinion was changing inside A K Gopalan Bhavan on the crucial nuclear deal.

And given the reams of anti-Manmohan Singh and anti-US statements that have been published recently by both AKG Bhavan and the CPI headquarters of Ajay Bhavan, it was obvious that Basu and Surjeet have squeezed out a positive interpretation of yesterday’s statement made by Singh in Parliament.

Even last afternoon, there was a hint of belligerence in CPI(M) senior politburo member Sitaram Yechury’s conversation with the media. He had insisted that the party would discuss the issue threadbare when Parliament takes up the nuclear deal for discussion on Monday. After Basu’s positive response, it was apparent that the CPI(M) was without its usual fervour on this controversial issue.

Even Yechury told reporters later this afternoon, ‘‘We were apprehensive that the US had given no concrete assurance about India’s inclusion in the elite nuclear club. Neither had the US done much to ensure that India gets a a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. Even the Prime Minister himself expressed these concerns in his speech in Parliament yesterday.’’

In a way, this change in stance could be interpreted as a gentle snub to the party general secretary, Prakash Karat, who had been espousing this tough line. Not just Karat, even the CPI has been extremely critical of the nuclear deal and Ajay Bhavan has gone to the extent of describing the Indo-US joint statement as a blind pursuance of the pro-US tilt that was typical of the BJP’s foreign policy.

At the end of the last party Congress, Basu had stuck his neck out and warned the party of the inherent dangers of moving too far away from the Congress. That warning was drowned in the celebration that followed the election of Prakash Karat as general secretary. Many hailed it as a generational change.

But since then, Karat had been accused of moving away from the Congress in a very gradual and calibrated manner. Every decision taken by the UPA both economically and politically was being viewed as a potential area of dispute. But today, the Surjeet-Basu line won the day. Not that it signals a course correction. The CPI(M) elders may not always force their decisions on the younger leaders but this is one significant victory they have scored.