Nuclear dil

To say that Thursday8217;s Congress-Left joint statement is a victory for the Left may be overreading it. Yes, a committee has been set up to address Left 8216;objections8217;, but the government is not exactly promising to hold its breath 8212; or crucially, the deal. The operationalisation of the deal will only 8220;take into account8221; the committee8217;s findings, a reasonably vague undertaking. Yet the Left has also scored. Among the aspects of the bilateral agreement that the committee is mandated to look into, note this one: 8220;the implications of the nuclear agreement on foreign policy8230;8221; Those words would seem to give some ground to the Left chorus so far. As these columns have argued, the furore worked up by Left parties over the nuclear deal is, fundamentally, a demand for a foreign policy that is more ideological and less driven by objective national interest. So yes, at Thursday8217;s end, with both parties able to eke out triumph from the joint statement, the government does look less in crisis. But does it look like a government that can now fully go back to work?

This is a question that must be seriously considered by all the protagonists in the political battle over the nuclear deal. In many ways, the political squalling over an abstruse agreement has clarified a predicament that was not being called by its name. The Congress and the Left are unnatural allies. Neither their shared antagonism towards the BJP nor their several coordination committees could mask the absence of a common political purpose or vision. This lack of fit at the country8217;s political centre is especially unfortunate in times when India seems poised at the edge of vast and gainful transitions 8212; with a buoyant economy at home and the possibility of a redefinition of its role in the world.

Even if the present crisis recedes 8212; and there8217;s no certainty of that 8212; the fault lines it has brought to the surface are unlikely to fade. They will simply surface at the next confrontation. Do the Congress and Manmohan Singh want to run a government that is so hobbled? Do they want to buy time from the Left, and then some more? And does the Left want to live with this fundamental unease with the policies of a government it supports? Now that the immediate crisis has been staved off, let both parties think seriously about how they have both become part of the problem. Elections are the solution.