In giving a final push to the historic civil nuclear initiative, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has boldly appealed to his predecessor and the BJP leader, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to facilitate India’s atomic liberation. In describing Vajpayee as the Bhishma Pitamah of Indian politics, invoking his courageous foreign policy record on the United States and Pakistan, and asking him to back the nuclear deal in the name of national interest the PM is trying to break the domestic political logjam on foreign policy. The Congress always had the option to triangulate between the BJP and the CPM, which are the two most mutually hostile political formations in India. Yet, the party’s defensive attitudes and poor political management allowed the CPM and the BJP to unite in opposing the nuclear deal. The uncharacteristic aggression and sophistication displayed by the PM in the Parliament on Wednesday underlines the Congress leadership’s welcome return to political purposefulness.In sharply attacking L.K. Advani while reaching out to Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh is also attempting a second triangulation within the BJP. All those familiar with Vajpayee’s record — the testing of nuclear weapons in May 1998 and immediately embarking on a nuclear reconciliation with Washington — have been deeply dismayed by the BJP’s current opportunistic opposition. Advani has allowed the BJP to abandon, willy nilly, Vajpayee’s proud foreign policy legacy. Whether Vajpayee will live up to his reputation as India’s elder statesman and come out in defence of the deal is not important. It makes good political sense for the Congress leadership to heap praise on Vajpayee’s diplomatic record and attack the current BJP leadership for departing from it.The PM’s encomium to Vajpayee on his extraordinary contribution to the peace process with Pakistan opens the door for a third political triangulation by the Congress. It is no secret that the PM is awaiting the first available opportunity to visit Pakistan, engage the newly elected leadership and elevate the bilateral ties to a new level. Giving due credit to Vajpayee for imagining the possibilities for peace in the Subcontinent should help undercut inevitable opposition from the BJP to the PM’s new outreach to Pakistan. By putting ties with Pakistan on the front burner, the Congress can also counter the CPM’s argument that the UPA government’s diplomacy has been exclusively focused on America. As it prepares for the latest political variant of the epic battle in Kurukshethra, the Congress leadership has everything to gain by celebrating Vajpayee as the Bhishma Pitamah.
