PM VS Karat: Final round in the battle begins

THE BIGGEST DEAL: July 22 will decide who wins the N-battle - the reluctant politician or the communist hardliner.

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New Delhi: When US President George Bush and India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shook over the Indo-US Nuclear Deal, it was historic moment for India. But the handshake was also the starting point of a bitter rivalry.

For the Prime Minister, the nuclear deal was potenitally his only lasting legacy, but for CPM leader Prakash Karat, it was an act of submission in front of the United States.

Editorial advisor Times of India, Gautam Adhikari says, "It's essentially a battle between two different world views. Manmohan Singh's view of the world is that of a classical liberal, while Karat's ideology and that of his party is based on one single point-anti-Americanism agenda or what he calls anti-imperialism."

Anti-impeliaristic slogans are still visible on the walls of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi, painted by members of the Students Federation of India, a student body that Karat founded more then three decades ago.

The only election that Prakash Karat has ever won was as a student in JNU, but that that has certainly not hindered his rise within the CPM ranks. Infact, like many others who came before him, Karat rose to the top rank in the party without ever trying to enter Parliament.

But unlike his immdiate predecessor Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Karat did not care too much for the demands of maintaining a coalition.

Seminar editor, Harsh Sethi says, "Prakash Karat comes across as an overtly convinced person who is lecturing and hanranguing everyone else on the nuclear issue. And is extremely confident of his own opinion while treating everyone else as unworthy of the attention that he wants for himself."

The Prime Minister on the other hand is a study in understatement - avoiding any direct attacks, playing the reluctant politician and the proverbial underdog.

Image makeover guru, Dileep Cherian says, "People like an underdog who takes a principled stand and they like a principled stand if it is based on reason. Manmohan Singh is extremely smart in using these two things."

The stage is set, so will it be the reluctant politician or the communist hardliner? Only the trust vote will decide who will emerge as the victor.