The controversy also offers the government an opportunity to proclaim its commitment to launch simultaneous nuclear cooperation with all nuclear suppliers, including the US, France and Russia. India needs the support of its friends, new and old, to change NSG rules, if and when the ideologically blinkered left let the government reach that point. It is only by engaging all suppliers, not by pandering to left-wing fancies, can India get the best possible terms on finance and technology transfer for the long overdue expansion of its nuclear power programme.