3…2…1… The 123 Agreement of the Indo-US nuclear deal has become some kind of a countdown for the UPA regime at the Centre. With the clock and calendar suddenly racing, the air is thick with talk of the imminent fall of the Government. Of course, there is the basic question: Is there a Government at all for it to fall? Sure, there is a ruling alliance in place … we could discern it from the desperate voices in their death throes, but what of governance? If that is the yardstick, the Government, even if there, is then invisible. Alive but not kicking. May be like comets, whose existence we learn of only when they are in free fall, the presence of the UPA ‘Government’ too could be felt only from the falling debris. And the heads it will hit are many!
The first scalp, would doubtless be M Singh. His head, seemingly well protected, literally and owing to his enjoying Signora Sonia’s trust, would still take a severe blow for he has now made the deal a personal prestige issue. He insists that the deal is in national interest, but one can occasionally perceive his eye wandering in the direction of posterity, not to speak of Uncle Sam’s approval; having been dubbed a dummy, the Sardar sees the deal as a chance for self-assertion, knowing full well it is also a suicide pact. And he will not even become a martyr because in the Cong, martyrdom is not permitted for those outside of the dynasty. So, from being a doormat, he will become a footnote before vanishing from the fineprint of history. But for now, if the Government does fall, he will continue as caretaker PM. But then, that’s what he is already!
May be we should call him Undertaker, instead, for having pushed his party over the brink. Many heavy-weight Cong heads will roll along with his. We hear his own partymen, and that includes his patron-saint, are terribly upset with him for hastening the crash. They seem to be convinced that this stint at power could be the last for quite some time to come and so would want to stretch it as much as possible. The spoil sport MSingh, therefore, is the enemy within; that the silly Sardar should be talking of national interest when the party interests and personal interests are going for a toss is something they cannot fathom. It goes against the familiar Congress ‘culture’ and worse, is blasphemous of the Roman Goddess and the semi-Roman Godson. These days Congmen look like condemned prisoners awaiting the gallows. Watch Sibal and Pranab and you will agree.
But equally, if not even more, distressed are the allies, for whom the bottomline is uninterrupted power, political power, not nuclear. To their angst, they are now faced with a power shutdown. We will go one by one, though they are united in fall. And by seniority: K first. Does anyone know where the DMK stands on the nuclear issue? Well, everywhere but actually nowhere. K was for the deal when it hit the headlines as a great milestone for India. That was the Cong line. After the Left upped the ante, he promptly downed his support, his rational mind having sensed trouble. Now, he is playing the sagely moderator, a la Surjeet, striving to avert a showdown. Suddenly TR Baalu is in great demand in the Capital and gets audience from no less than Sonia herself, because the Thalaivar could not be present. Now, what are K and Co moderating on? The pros and cons of the nuclear deal? Far from it.
And then there is Lalu. Derailed from Bihar, he managed to get himself berthed in Delhi. He had been chugging along merrily until this nonsense of a nuclear deal landed like a rock on the tracks. The deal itself makes no sense to him. From fodder to uranium, it is a huge leap of knowledge and Lalu is no mood for such efforts. So he goes on air by rote: the UPA government should not fall if only to keep the communal ‘porces’ out! He should know. An early demise of this government and worse, a hostile one instead, would mean getting run over along with clan, cattle and cadre by the NDA Express. For the likes of Paswan, it could be a case of a door closing only for another to open: Happy to warm the seat as long as possible but all is not lost either if exit is inevitable. The NDA is quite porous for his ilk to creep in.
We now turn Left, to the villain of the piece. A villain at the crossroads really: Allowing the N-deal would help the global(China excluded) ‘Imperialist forces’ and stalling the deal would embolden the local ‘communal forces’, Islamist not included. Of course, the Left has been living comfortably with this dilemma with full knowledge of MSingh’s commitment to the deal for more than a year now. The comrades, therefore, have a more valid reason to put a spoke in the nuclear wheel now: the genetic incompatibility with the Congress. The latter is the Left’s natural enemy, and the enemy who matters in the Communist strongholds as polls draw near. The BJP does not figure in those battlefields at all. If the Left has to retain its numbers, it can only be at the expense of the Cong. But alas, they are now bedfellows. And with runaway inflation chasing the Cong, the Left too is testing I-Positive! The immorality of sleeping with the enemy is coming home to roost! Indeed, the N-issue is the right alibi to ditch the infectious adversary-turned-ally before it is too late!
Even Mulayam’s support may not be a big help, but he is being wooed fervently. For Sonia that amounts to eating humble pizza for reasons well known. So, with all the political vultures off their perches and hovering on the skies scavenging for ripe pickings from the carcass of the fallen government, poll season, read migration season, is verily on the horizon. But the biggest casualty of all this is the nuclear issue itself. There is very little enlightenment on that count. MSingh’s regime has been far from transparent. Most of the provisions, many vital ones too, have not come to public eye on grounds of security. The Left’s opposition looks instinctive and dubious while a great part of the political class is painfully unconcerned about the merits and faults.The scientists themselves are split down the middle. And there is no guarantee on what course the deal would take in the US even if inked now!
We the people have no clue and care less about the ABC of the 123 Agreement. We will back it if Ash Rai endorses it or dump it if Rajinikant says so. We have outsourced the thinking process.
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