Opinion - Editorials   

Political crisis defused

Positive statements made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in interactions at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit against early elections and in favour of reconciling divergent standpoints in a coalition arrangement and viewing differences on a particular issue in a wider political perspective are a clear signal that the political crisis that set in around the second week of August 2007 has been defused. As the whole world knows, the crisis expressed seemingly irreconcilable discord between a minority Congress-led government and the supporting Left parties over the 123 agreement for civilian nuclear cooperation with the United States. Asserting that “elections are still far away” and that his government expected to complete its full term (in mid-2009), the Prime Minister did well to clarify that while he would be disappointed if the deal fell through, “one has to live with certain disappointments and move on.” He also struck a healthy political note by recognising that “we are not a one-issue government” and, further, that “in politics, we must survive short-term battles to address long-term concerns.” In endorsing the Prime Minister’s constructive remarks, Sonia Gandhi went a step further by reiterating her party’s determination to ensure that the United Progressive Alliance government would go on to implement its programmes “till 2009” — a political objective that could be achieved only by practising “the dharma of coalition ... [which is] to work together, try and understand and accommodate each other’s view.” The sagacious decision to end the standoff was clearly hers.

Earlier, the UPA government, which had set itself a timeline that would lead to the full operationalisation of the deal in early 2008, insisted on going forward come what may. The 61-member Left bloc led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) made it plain that it would not allow the 123 deal to go forward; it would withdraw support to the government if it went ahead even with the first step of operationalisation by entering into negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency for a safeguards agreement. Three factors have helped end the standoff. The first was direct political talks held by CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat and his senior party colleagues with Pranab Mukherjee and Sonia Gandhi, in which larger political questions and common interests were centre-staged and the discord over the nuclear issue was sought to be put in its place. The second factor was growing pressure from key UPA allies who are against a premature general election. The Congress president evidently shares their perception. The third factor has been the talking mechanism — the UPA-Left committee on the nuclear deal and related matters — which was perceived to be an arrangement to buy time, if only short time. This underestimated mechanism, it seems, has been serving its larger political purpose well. Now that the standoff is over and the government appears to have realised that nuclear deal or not it has a lot more to contribute to governance and development, no effort should be spared to build on this positive outcome.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Political crisis defused
Elections but new themes
The ways of the Canadian bureaucracy
Seeking an arc of stability in West Asia
Diana inquest — a simple waste of money
Climate change: where science and politics collide
Corrections and clarifications
Ajmer blast
On ragging
Welcome protest

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu