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Journalism of Courage
After his negotiators had delivered a very credible nuclear agreement with the US last month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had an easy case to defend. The impressive part of the PM8217;s statement to Parliament on Monday was its complete political self-assurance. He declared the readiness to let history judge his huge accomplishment in the nuclear liberation of India. The PM is aware that the debate on the nuclear deal has long ceased to be a technical one. For quite some time, the BJP and the CPM have made it plain they will attack the 123 Agreement, irrespective of its contents. The PM confronted this challenge head on when he declared over the weekend that there will be no renegotiation of the nuclear agreement and told his opponents to either accept the deal or pull down his government. The PM8217;s new robustness should rub off on the Congress when parliamentary debate begins in a few days.
To be sure, as the main opposition party, it was BJP8217;s responsibility to question the government8217;s negotiating positions. But from the very moment the PM and George Bush unveiled the nuclear initiative two years ago, the BJP painted itself into a corner with its unremitting opposition to the deal. Has BJP begun to see itself as a party in permanent opposition? Worse still, the BJP seemed ready to abandon its own rightful claim of making India a real nuclear weapon power and transforming India8217;s relationship with the US. It is also understandable that the CPM finds it hard to get over its ideological opposition to engaging the US and wants to retain the option of challenging the government8217;s conduct of foreign policy.
