All actions have unintended consequences. CPM leader Prakash Karat’s main objective in threatening to pull down the Manmohan Singh government on the nuclear issue was to break the gathering momentum behind the Indo-US partnership. But Karat’s adventurism might end up severely damaging Sino-Indian relations.

It does not matter whether Karat was taking the cue from Beijing to block the nuclear deal with the US. What matters is an incontrovertible fact — China is the only major power that opposes India regaining access to the international nuclear energy market. Nor is there any doubt that China is trying to perpetuate nuclear parity between India and Pakistan at a moment when the US is trying to de-hyphenate the subcontinent’s nuclear rivals.

As part of a consistent effort over the last decade to improve relations with China, India has been willing to forget and forgive Beijing’s unpardonable transfer of nuclear weapon designs and missile production technologies to Pakistan.

Thanks to Karat’s adventurism, India’s long accumulated nuclear grievances against China are surging back to the surface. As mainstream India concludes China is out to block India’s impending nuclear liberation, it is Beijing that will incur the political costs.

With friends like Karat, China does not need enemies in India. If the Chinese establishment does its India sums again, it would quickly distance itself from the CPM and support the resumption of international nuclear cooperation with New Delhi. If it doesn’t, Beijing will risk stoking the fury of Indian nationalism and pushing New Delhi closer to Washington and Tokyo.

... contd.