No one would quarrel with the communists for withdrawing their support to the ruling UPA coalition on political grounds. But even those who empathise with the Left can only be dismayed by the latest communist rhetoric. Consider their proposition that reducing the Manmohan Singh government to a minority before the PM heads to the G8 summit will prevent global leaders from implementing India’s civil nuclear initiative. Forget for a moment that the government may not necessarily be in a minority after the Left pulls the plug. Ignore, too, the fact that there is no legal concept of a “minority government”. A government is free to pursue all manner of policies, until it is voted out on the floor of the Lok Sabha. Nor do world leaders confuse their own national interests in India with the political crisis in New Delhi.

If the lack of a sophisticated worldview has always been a communist failing, their apparent determination to humiliate the PM in front of the international community is new and tragic. At stake is not just the PM’s personal prestige but also the very question of India’s interests. It is the Left’s failure to appreciate the value of ending India’s nuclear isolation that is driving the communists off the political cliff. While the Left’s arguments against a strategic alliance with the United States deserve a hearing, their attempts to link India’s nuclear liberation with American “imperialism” have been simply outlandish. Worse still, the communists seem either unwilling or unable to understand the political context and the technical structure of the nuclear initiative. This is a consequence of putting ideological correctness above the mastery of laborious detail. The Left argument that the deal will be on “auto-pilot”, once India approaches the IAEA, and therefore they must block it now is simplistic beyond belief. The 35 nations on the IAEA board of governors and the 45 members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group are not just waiting to genuflect before Washington. Such sceptics as China and Pakistan and many other doubters remain to be persuaded.

... contd.