N-deal: How Manmohan Singh made it possible

VICTORIOUS SINGH: Standing against all the odds, PM Manmohan Singh successfully got the N-deal.

Featured Blog

Suhasini Haidar

This Too Shall Not Pass

Featured Slideshows

New Delhi:The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) waiver for Indo-US nuclear deal is definitely a victory for India but it is also a personal victory of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who made a strong case for the deal in Parliament during the 2008 trust vote.

Even though the trust vote got mired in cash for vote controversy the PM didn’t lose his focus.

It was on July 15, 2005 when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W Bush had signed a joint statement expressing their plan to sign a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation deal.

That handshake in 2005 is described as golden by PM’s supporters but suicidal by his opponents.

Manmohan Singh was dubbed as one issue Prime Minister but the support of Congress president Sonia Gandhi kept him going.

There was a time when the survival of the UPA Government got threatened and it seemed that the PM has chosen his chair over the deal but Manmohan Singh didn’t give up.

"We are not a one issue government. In life, you can’t get everything. You move on,” the PM said at the HT summit.

But with the NSG waiver achieved Manmohan Singh must be heaving a sigh of relief. No uncertainty anymore on his being the face of the UPA in 2009. In fact, in the Assembly elections to be held later this year, both Manmohan Singh and the nuclear deal will be projected in a big way.

"It is a red letter day for us. The Prime Minister must be congratulated," says Congress Spokesperson Manish Tiwari.

Till now Manmohan Singh was often referred to as the father of economic reforms in India but from now on he will also be credited as the man who ended India's nuclear apartheid.