Govt draws comfort as BJP vents spleen on Left

Without overtly criticising the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement, the BJP today condemned CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat's remark that the deal and India's rising cooperation with the US were an effort to "encircle" China ""a sure indication that Parliament, when it meets on November 15, would not be as opposed to the agreement as the government believed.

Top sources in the government said if the debate in Parliament did not decisively go against the government, it could take the nuclear agreement to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in December, clearing the way for withdrawal of support by the Left and early elections.

A more compliant BJP and even a marginal increase in vote share in the Gujarat Assembly election was all the party needed to go for a general election, sources said.

BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said this was not a turnaround and the party still opposed the deal, but on the grounds that it betrayed national interest and the future of India's strategic programme.

Prasad said the party did not oppose ties with the US and the resolutions at its national executive meeting in Bhopal were a proof of this.

Sources said the latest exchange reflected the BJP's gradual reconciliation with the nuclear deal, although Prasad denied this.

However, the vehemence with which the BJP is defending the Indo-US ties and the frequency with which party leaders are meeting US diplomats shows a growing softening.

Prasad also asked the CPI(M) if US capital, which West Bengal was assiduously inviting, became "bereft of imperialist colour" after it was invested in Kolkata.

"The CPI(M) and its general secretary should examine this," he said. On the CPI(M) favouring a debate in Parliament under a rule which will not entail voting, he said, "They don't want voting as it will expose its real face. Their opposition to the deal is just a show."

He said the Cabinet's failure to discuss revocation of president's rule in Karnataka reflected the tendency of the United Prgressive Alliance and its allies to cling to power despite losing all moral right to do so.

"When it came to imposing president's rule in Bihar last year, a fax was obtained at midnight from President Kalam, who was in Moscow. Yet, even five days after the BJP-JD(S) legislators gave signed affidavits supporting the alliance government, the government appears reluctant to move on the matter," said Prasad.