The guessing game’s begun, once again. Will this coalition last? A Machiavellian drama is being played out around the nuclear deal, in full glare of studio lights without a thought for how it will serve our national interest.

The nuclear deal is not only about personal legacies. Economically, we know that given our huge and growing dependence on imported hydrocarbons and soaring oil prices, finding indigenous renewable sources of energy is the only feasible way forward. France with 70 percent of its energy needs coming from nuclear generation, Japan with more than 50 percent, Germany at similar levels and China marching ahead with nuclear generation, are not unwise. Yes, nuclear energy will provide only about 10 percent of our energy needs by 2020, if we start now. But it will demonstrate our national will to overcome this constraint and even more important, as Dr. Arunachalam once put it, the impact of 2-3 nuclear reactors simultaneously under construction for the next 20-30 years on the Indian psyche will be tremendous. The sheer scale of engineering, skills and organisation required will transform not just our economy but our national self image. These nuclear generators, located as they must be in green field sites, will certainly reduce the distance between Bharat and India.

Politically too, going ahead with the deal makes eminent sense for the Congress. Not perhaps for the UPA whose other members clearly don’t wish to see a strong Congress enter the electoral arena. The decision to finalize the deal can be and must be explained to the people as an effort to take our energy destiny into our own hands. What better a time to go to the people with the message of self reliance in energy when oil is at $140 a barrel and is seen as the most important cause for the present inflation?

... contd.