PM vs CPM: Will ego clash nuke the deal?

CLASH OF IDENTITIES: The N-deal debate now seems like battle of egos between Manmohan Singh and Prakash Karat?

    

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Is the accusation of the CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat, blaming the PM for a political crisis in the country now, fair? The lead opponent of the nuclear deal, Karat, squarely blames the Prime Minister for the country's political crisis.

In the party's mouthpiece, People's Democracy, he questions the PMs motive to rush to the IAEA now.

The urge, he claims, comes from a US dictated schedule designed to help US President George Bush leave a legacy in the last few months of a discredited presidency.

This rush, he claims, is contrary to the understanding between the Congress and the Left, arrived at in November last year.

The carefully-worded piece that blames the PM and is hard on the government, while leaving the Congress leadership blameless. Is there any merit in his argument? Has the nuclear deal now become an ego battle between the PM and the CPM General Secretary ?

CNN-IBN debated the issue on Face the Nation with a panel comprising Editor-in-Chief, Outlook, Vinod Mehta and defence analyst Rear Admiral (retd) Raja Menon.

Menon kickstarted the debate and said the issue was not about egos at all. In fact, he said, no one – and certainly not Communists – stood competition to a man like Manmohan Singh who, he said, was world’s most qualified prime minister. “On the one hand you have a world famous economist who pulled the country out of trouble once. He is the most qualified PM of the world and on the right side you have man whose only qualification is that he is a communist. These are ridiculous people,” he said, adding Karat did not know what was good for the country.

Vinod Mehta, however, did not agree and said Communist-bashing was a national pastime. “While it may not be true that it’s an ego battle, I think PM has also got to see in what context he is trying to push the deal. I think everybody thinks it’s good deal but heavens won’t fall if it doesn’t go through,” he said.

Mehta also said while he was not against the nuclear deal per se, the priority of Indian Government should be on taming the alarming inflation numbers. “You go 25 miles out of the Capital and you’ll find no one has heard of the N-deal. They are only worried about price rise,” he said.

Many critics of the PM would agree with that point of view. That school of thought believes Manmohan Singh should not plunge the country into the uncertainty of early elections just because of the nuclear deal.

Singh vs Karat: Who is to blame?

However, Mehta also balanced out his sharp opinion by saying the inflexible behaviour of Karat and the Left parties was irritating. He also said Communists will be equally responsible for plunging the country into early elections despite there being a middle ground. “There was a face-saving formula to allow the Govt to go to the IAEA and get an undertaking from the Left. Why was that formula not explored?” he questioned.