Nuke deal: BJP refuses to bail out govt

Bleak winter session for government likely as Left decides to pick on Chidambaram.

Loath to miss a chance to embarrass the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today decided not to exert itself to help the government steer the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement in Parliament.

By the end of the day, it seemed that only a miracle could save the deal as the BJP issued a harsh and categorical condemnation of the government's inability to deal with the United States as an equal and declared it would accept nothing less than a total re-negotiation of the agreement.

With opposition and middle benches, occupied by the BJP and the Left, respectively, opposing the deal, the government has only two options: Continue with the deal despite the opposition and face elections or junk the deal.

The BJP's core committee, which met today, issued a statement, signed by the three most important leaders in the party, President Rajnath Singh, leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, LK Advani, and leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Jaswant Singh.

"Over the last few days, several persons, including Henry Kissinger, US Ambassador David Mulford, National Security Advisor MK Narayanan and Atomic Energy Commission chief Dr Anil Kakodkar have called on the three of us to discuss various aspects of the nuclear deal," the statement said, indicating for the first time the hierarchy of the party.

The statement summarised the BJP's position that it did not consider the agreement as the icon defining the Indo-US relations.

It was for cooperation between the two countries as sovereign equals, the party said, adding it opposed the deal as it compromised India's long-term strategic programme and did nothing to meet its future energy needs.

The party's position is that the deal needs to be renegotiated, not "hustled through," as the UPA government is attempting to do.

This unequivocal rejection of the government's blandishment caused a flurry in the Congress camp, even though several party leaders had expected nothing less.

"We have little faith in the BJP's word. After (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee and Advani, no one knows who is running that party," said a senior Congress minister.

A similar trust deficit was evident among the BJP leaders, who said they would do nothing to help the government as they had tried this once "" on the pension Bill "" and ended up with egg on their faces.

After the BJP pledged support on the pension Bill, the government got so frightened of the Left's threats that it did not bring the Bill for voting.

Meanwhile, the Left parties, basking in the glow of the nuclear deal victory, have decided that their next target in the government will be Finance Minister P Chidambaram, whom the prime minister has acknowledged as the most efficient minister in the government.

India's "obsession" with economic growth instead of economic development is annoying the Left leaders, who plan to criticise the government in Parliament on price rise, agrarian distress, unemployment, disempowerment of people, especially the middle class, and the vagaries of the Sensex.

This strategy was put before the Left parties by CPI(M) General secretary Prakash Karat. The Left parties have told the government to wrap up the nuclear deal debate between November 19 and November 21 as they want to devote the rest of the session, till December 7, to economic issues.

"The middle class is hostile to this government and the full responsibility for this lies with Finance Minister P Chidambaram" said Forward Bloc General Secretary Debabrata Biswas.

All indications point to a bleak winter session for the government.