10-15-2007, 11:30 PM
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<b>Dr Singh says it is not the end of life. Which is true enough, but it could be the end of Manmohan Singh,"</b> the Business Standard wrote in an editorial titled "A hostage in office".
<b>"There is life after the nuclear deal? Sure," echoed the Indian Express. "But what kind of life?" </b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>DEAL IN DEEP FREEZE </b>
Singh, said Thapar and others, faced the remainder of his term with his credibility seriously diminished, with the government's credibility in Washington -- and in other foreign capitals where it had lobbied hard for the deal -- seriously undermined.
<b>"All this casts serious doubt over what the Manmohan Singh government can now engage in," the Mint business newspaper wrote in an editorial entitled "Nuclear dodo" on Monday. </b>
<b>"With a near-death experience, the pressure to indulge in populism will become inexorable," it said, adding: "Investors may have doubts about India again." </b>
But can the nuclear deal still be saved?
The left's opposition to the deal seems implacable, and time is running out fast to win them round. The agreement still needs to get through the IAEA, the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group and get to the US Congress before next year's presidential election sweeps everything else off the table.
<b>A Democrat in the White House is unlikely to push the deal through in its current shape after those elections, most analysts argue.
That gives the government a matter of weeks at the most.</b>
Columnist Vir Sanghvi, writing in the Hindustan Times, wondered if the left still could be convinced now the government has taken a more conciliatory, less confrontational approach.
And in the Times of India, columnist K. Subrahmanyam wondered if Singh really meant what he said.
Rather like a finance minister denying a currency would have to be devalued, right up to the announcement of a devaluation, he argued, Singh was duty bound to stick publicly to his coalition partners -- right until the moment he pulled the plug.
But right now, that interpretation is not widely shared.
The nuclear deal is in "the deep freezer", the Times of India wrote in an editorial, describing it as a blow to India's global aspirations and a diminution of its international stature.
"By backing down after raising the bar so high the government has signalled, in effect, that it is weak and open to blackmail on any issue by any pressure group in parliament.
<b>"With one and a half years remaining for polls, and the Left demonstrating it holds the whip hand over government, hopes for economic reform are dim."</b>
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<b>Dr Singh says it is not the end of life. Which is true enough, but it could be the end of Manmohan Singh,"</b> the Business Standard wrote in an editorial titled "A hostage in office".
<b>"There is life after the nuclear deal? Sure," echoed the Indian Express. "But what kind of life?" </b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>DEAL IN DEEP FREEZE </b>
Singh, said Thapar and others, faced the remainder of his term with his credibility seriously diminished, with the government's credibility in Washington -- and in other foreign capitals where it had lobbied hard for the deal -- seriously undermined.
<b>"All this casts serious doubt over what the Manmohan Singh government can now engage in," the Mint business newspaper wrote in an editorial entitled "Nuclear dodo" on Monday. </b>
<b>"With a near-death experience, the pressure to indulge in populism will become inexorable," it said, adding: "Investors may have doubts about India again." </b>
But can the nuclear deal still be saved?
The left's opposition to the deal seems implacable, and time is running out fast to win them round. The agreement still needs to get through the IAEA, the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group and get to the US Congress before next year's presidential election sweeps everything else off the table.
<b>A Democrat in the White House is unlikely to push the deal through in its current shape after those elections, most analysts argue.
That gives the government a matter of weeks at the most.</b>
Columnist Vir Sanghvi, writing in the Hindustan Times, wondered if the left still could be convinced now the government has taken a more conciliatory, less confrontational approach.
And in the Times of India, columnist K. Subrahmanyam wondered if Singh really meant what he said.
Rather like a finance minister denying a currency would have to be devalued, right up to the announcement of a devaluation, he argued, Singh was duty bound to stick publicly to his coalition partners -- right until the moment he pulled the plug.
But right now, that interpretation is not widely shared.
The nuclear deal is in "the deep freezer", the Times of India wrote in an editorial, describing it as a blow to India's global aspirations and a diminution of its international stature.
"By backing down after raising the bar so high the government has signalled, in effect, that it is weak and open to blackmail on any issue by any pressure group in parliament.
<b>"With one and a half years remaining for polls, and the Left demonstrating it holds the whip hand over government, hopes for economic reform are dim."</b>
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