The Organiser has an editorial on the Indo-US nuclear deal, titled ‘What a farce on this deal.’ It says, “It’s not clear if the Left has succeeded in nuking the Indo-US nuclear deal. But the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee indicates that the deal is dead. And his prime minister — Dr Manmohan Singh — the same day claims that the deal is still alive. UPA has only to blame its timidity for this sorry state of affairs. The problem is that the UPA is not willing to stake its power to save the deal. This the Left knows better and it is blackmailing the government on every step...

“As a coalition government, the UPA has not crowned itself in glory — especially in its handling of national affairs. Under the UPA, India has not been able to leverage its diplomatic status because of the Left’s leg pulling.”

It seconds L.K. Advani’s position: “As the NDA prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani has repeatedly pointed out, no country will give in writing surrendering its right to conduct nuclear tests in perpetuity unless it is a client state...”

Why Basu is right

A news analysis titled ‘Basu is right, for once’ by one S.R. Ramanujan says, “Double talk, hypocrisy, contradictions are the hallmarks of any communist leader’s utterances... Nonagenarian Marxist Jyoti Basu, who ruled West Bengal for nearly three decades in the name of democracy, for once spoke his mind and that was more close to reality. He asked ‘What does Sonia Gandhi know about West Bengal or its culture or civilisation? Her knowledge is limited’.

... contd.