Finally — and this is not something the Congress strategists will readily admit — the belief that there is organised Muslim opposition to better relations with the US has triggered a measure of Hindu exasperation. The ‘national interest’ that the Congress has subtly invoked has touched a chord among those who resent sectional blackmail. Predictably, this includes a disproportionate numbers of those naturally well-disposed to the BJP.

An important feature of the kerfuffle over the nuclear agreement is that in the public perception it has translated into a debate on India’s relations with the US. The complexities of the separation of civil and military reactions and the reprocessing tangle are not the stuff of popular discourse. What counts is the middle class belief that good relations with America are inextricably linked to India’s economic growth and global opportunities for Indians. In disabusing the middle class fear that the BJP too is part of the anti-American bandwagon, Advani has neutralised a possible source of political irritation. He hasn’t won new converts for the BJP; he has merely corrected the feeling that the BJP is an unthinking fellow-traveller of the Left. He has done so while persisting with his doubts on the nuclear agreement.

There may well be a shrewd political calculation behind Advani’s signal to guardedly support any government initiative to bolster the Indo-US strategic relationship. The BJP is anxious that the next general election, whenever it is held, is not fought on an agenda that suits the Congress. Making the Left veto of the nuclear agreement the central focus of the coming election campaign offers the Congress an opportunity to parade as the defender of national interests and the authentic voice of Indian nationalism. Such a projection — and the Congress is quite adept at reinventing itself expediently — will in turn make the BJP’s own support base vulnerable to poaching. Not having recovered from its civil war and decimation in Uttar Pradesh, this is a luxury the BJP can ill afford.

... contd.