On the China boundary, Vajpayee was prepared to give up the nation’s claims on Aksai Chin in the negotiations with China and look beyond the Shimla Agreement in India’s engagement with Pakistan.

Manmohan Singh has stayed the course set by Vajpayee on these two important issues. If the BJP is now prepared to spit on a nuclear deal with the US, which it had worked tirelessly for, it would have no compunctions in attacking the government for compromising on national security vis-a-vis China and Pakistan. The Left today is eager to embarrass its own government on the nuclear deal with the US, one of the most open and transparent negotiations India has ever conducted.

For all its complexity the Indo-US nuclear deal is a bargain with negotiating chips the two sides have accumulated over the years. The talks with China and Pakistan are about compromises on territory and a redrawing of the national map.

The Left should know what it is asking for when it joins the BJP in whipping up parliamentary emotions on the nuclear deal with the US. Similar rhetoric on national security would be employed with greater force by the BJP to destroy the normalisation of relations with China and the difficult peace process with Pakistan.