Will it not be political suicide for the Congress to go to the elections as a party that could never stand up to communist blackmail? And what is wrong with forging a strategic relationship with the US — has China not enjoyed three decades of unparalleled growth as a result of its compact with the US, which included acceding to all its requests at the time of China’s WTO ascension?

The prime minister is not one to take unsound and unreasonable stands. Unmindful of his personal loss of face, he goes very far to compromise his position when national interest is at stake. But once he has made up his mind, it is different. He took a long time to make up his mind on signing Article VIII (current account convertibility) but once he did, he achieved it in 1994. He gave his party colleagues and managers more than eight months to bring the coalition partners around and explain to them the economic and political benefits of signing the deal. Now, these party managers should realize that aborting the deal will have greater negative fallout than finalising it.

The PM has also put in enormous efforts to convince the scientific and security establishment that India’s strategic interests will not be compromised. As a member of the National Security Advisory Board, I can vouch for the fact that these issues have been discussed threadbare and in all their aspects, and there is no danger of losing out. The drive to finalize the nuclear deal can be made into as powerful a political mantra as garibi hatao or even jai jawan jai kisan. It took courage, imagination and a huge measure of self confidence for those two leaders to break through ideological cobwebs and vested interests to mobilize people around those slogans. The time has come for the PM to appeal directly to the people and explain how the nuclear deal will contribute to building a stronger India.

... contd.