Therefore, if Dr Manmohan Singh refuses, even at this late stage, to see the writing on the wall and recklessly pushes ahead with the nuclear deal, he should be prepared to see the Left leaders’ delegation heading to Rashtrapati Bhavan to communicate their decision to torpedo his government. If Dr Singh thinks that he must have the deal even at the risk of shortening the life of his own government, history will remember him as the prime minister who flouted parliamentary majority to bind India to a questionable international agreement that weakens India’s national security and strategic autonomy.

On the contrary, if wisdom prevails in the Congress camp and Dr Singh is restrained from committing hara-kiri, history will remember Prakash Karat as the man who, more than anyone else, prevented India from succumbing to American pressure.

Of course, Dr Singh showed no signs last week of respecting the will of Parliament. He has even tried an audacious trick to win over the BJP to his side by praising Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the “Bhishma Pitamah of Indian politics”. He has appealed to the former prime minister to rise above “narrow” party politics and support the Indo-US nuclear deal. For the first time in the last four years, he has praised Vajpayee. I presume that Sonia Gandhi, who has so far never uttered a word of praise for Vajpayee, must have given her green signal to this crafty strategy to create a rift in the BJP, which has so far staunchly opposed the deal. Who is advising the Congress in this?

... contd.