And the CMP had not a word about the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Nevertheless, the Sonia-Singh duo made the nuclear deal the most important priority for the UPA Government. When the Left objected, the Congress leadership resorted to the tactic of buying time by forming the UPA-Left committee under Pranab Mukherjee’s chairmanship. Whereas the Congress leadership’s conduct in the committee was dilatory, Prakash Karat and his comrades approached deliberations in the committee’s nine meetings between September 2007 and June 2008 with utmost seriousness. This can be seen in the excellent 203-page document that they released on Thursday, containing all the well-researched notes they exchanged with Pranabbabu and his colleagues.

If the Left had wanted, it could have withdrawn support to Dr Singh’s government a year ago, or in the course of the many deadlocked meetings of the committee. But it believed in the Prime Minister who had solemnly committed himself to “taking into account the findings of the committee before operationalisation of the nuclear deal”.

That solemn commitment was thrown to the winds, the moment the Congress was ready to ditch the Left and hitch its wagon to the Samajwadi Party with a cynical and sly deal. Whereas the Communist support to the UPA Government was legitimate, there is neither moral nor political legitimacy in the Congress-SP alliance. The unequivocal criticism of the nuclear deal by SP leaders inside Parliament, and the distasteful language they had used to attack the Congress leadership outside Parliament, are not hidden from anybody. Only a weak, visionless and desperate leadership of the Congress could have taken this shortcut to survival.

... contd.