123: Staying Alive

Indian politicians never fail to give surprises, but the present U-turn by Samajwadi Party (SP) was cut above the rest, truly a masterpiece. A party which had made tormenting the ruling party, a part of its manifesto, was joining centre in the 'national interest'. This 'patriotic juice' had just started flowing in their veins, and thanks to this 'new found love' , the country may be saved from an early election.

Left did right by pulling out the support. After taking the central government on ransom for more than four years, it had already made full use of its 'support'. Left was poking nose into every economic policy in guise of 'interest of masses’. Had this 'right decision' been taken two years ago, it could have saved the Indian economy, especially the oil industry, from getting into this abyss. Elections or no elections then, by this time we could have seen the nuclear deal through (seeing the increasing energy need of India and rising oil prices) , assuming any party or alliance would see the real worth of this deal and not the politics alone.

The 123 agreement is a highly misunderstood document and I am pretty sure, none of these national leaders are supporting or opposing it for the merits or demerits of the deal. Left is opposing because the agreement finds its origin in a capitalist country, America (I wonder what would have been Left’s response, had Russia proposed this deal) . Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is opposing because its job is to oppose any thing that is tabled in the Parliament by the ruling alliance. Decisions of other smaller parties depend on their 'present' allegiance (and not ideological allgiance) to the two major national alliances-UPA and NDA.

The ruling party, on the other side, will be the real winner (after off-course, Indian civilian nuclear energy sector and many other companies who seem to benefit from this deal). If it sails through the deal, which seems more likely, it will take the credit of bringing India into the league of select nuclear countries, and rightly so. But unfortunately if it does not, then the ruling party will get into the election ring with a martyr's image, though making full use of this will depend a lot on their PR skills. In the entire story one disturbing factor that seems to mar the ideologies and national interests, is their (political parties') tendencies to cling to power, under any circumstance . Even the delayed courage shown by the Prime Minister looked like aggression of a dying snake. Sometimes, it does not work.

National Interest. Bullshit!