The UPA government is now dithering on the nuclear deal with the US, missing the big moment on Pakistan, and dropping the ball on the border talks with China. If political hand wringing is a familiar trademark of the Congress, the Left’s political stupor on Pakistan and China takes one’s breath away. The Indian communists were quick to join the bandwagon against the nuclear deal with the US and threaten the government with dire consequences. But they have had no time to exert pressure on the government to consolidate the prospects for peace with either Pakistan or China. The Left’s interest in foreign policy does not seem to stretch beyond castigating India’s ties with the US and Israel. On both Pakistan and China, the government could have benefited from a communist intervention against the entrenched establishment conservatism that is blocking meaningful action.

In terms of relative complexity, a border deal with China has been more amenable to an early solution than the prospects for resolving the Kashmir dispute with Pakistan. Vajpayee made a bold departure from India’s dysfunctional negotiating position on the border dispute with China. Instead of empty posturing on high principles, legal claims and historic precedents, the BJP leadership signalled its readiness to settle the boundary dispute on a political basis. This meant practical “give and take” on the border instead of arguing that India was a victim of

Chinese aggression and Beijing had to make all the concessions.

It is this new approach that produced the first ever identification of the parameters for a settlement of the boundary dispute with China. Although it was the UPA government that signed the agreement in April 2005, the foundation was already laid in the Mishra-Dai talks. The UPA government has now faltered in the second phase of the negotiations which were to identify the mutual territorial concessions on the boundary. New Delhi has either lost its political nerve or lacks the diplomatic finesse to bring the

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