Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Will Advani be a statesman ?

Television News Channels are predicting the doom of the Manmohan Singh led , nay, prime ministered UPA Government, in the wake of the Manmohan-Sonia's pro-nuclear deal stance vis-a-vis the defiant Left front.

All sorts of arithmetic are being worked out, by television channels, to see how, and if, the Manmohan Singh government. A lot of gyan on 'sacrificing power for national interest of nuclear deal' psephology versus inflation psephology verus other miscellaneous theories are floating around.

If Manmohan Singh, in all his 4 years as Prime Minister has stood by conviction on any issue, it is possibly the nuclear deal with US. Interestingly, the deal was mooted by the Atal Behari Vajpayee Government and the deal progressed until the elections intervened and Manmohan replaced Vajpayee.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not oppose the deal in the manner that the Left does. One means that the BJP has no 'matter of principle' objections to the deal. (yes, the swadeshi sentiments and nuclear deal are mutually exclusive) . THe BJP's opposition to the deal is the traditional 'opposition for Opposition's sake'

With elections due in the USA in the next 4 months, a possible change of guard may fade hopes of the nuclear deal irredeemably.

Lal Krishna Advani, has a golden chance to play naughty politics, topple the government and cause an elections. Hell, he does not even have to play politics. Internal fissions within the UPA may cause disintegration.

Lal Krishna Advani, has a golden chance to play the statesman, and emerge a taller politician. He should place national considerations above short-term opportunistic views and endorse the deal.
If Advani will assure Manmohan that the BJP will vote in favour of Manmohan in case of a Lok Sabha vote (atlease abstain) it will further the nuclear deal, Advani will emerge taller and the BJP a party that keeps national interests foremost.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting opinion on this, incidentally the BJP is not unaware of this call which was earlier made by C Rajaghatta of TOI.
The opposition to the deal is not for opposition sake, Mr. Shourie and the party spokespersons have elucidated the position on the agreement quite clearly. Mr. Advani has since said that they are "not opposed" to the deal as such and that the matter is an internal UPA matter which they have to sort out themselves besides reiterating that their opposition was to certain clauses which compromise national interest. It would not be a big stretch for Mr. Advani to endorse the deal, but it would be a deathly blow to his political credibility because his parties points of opposition are rather credible and a sudden change for change's sake would be rather unethical.
Also having said that the party itself is "not opposed" to the deal, what is Manmohanji doing by breaking his head with the left, shouldn't he be engaging in talks with the BJP and addressing some issues there. Mr. Manmohan has not taken any initiative on his part and has not given any justification to address these clauses which are objectionable to BJP, then where does the question of "statesmanly" endorsing the deal arise.
Manmohanji's calls for political consensus are pretty empty in absence of any initiative.

So where is my paisa?

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