<img src='http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/3803/unpadr2.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
Left to right: N Chandrababu Naidu (TDP); Brindaban Goswami (AGP); Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP); Amar Singh (SP); Babulal Marandi (JVM); Om Prakash Chautala (INLD). (Illustration: Neelabh)
<b>
SP's U-turn: 24 hours that saved the nuke deal</b>
6 Jul 2008, 0001 hrs IST, Rajeev Deshpande,TNN
There are few better practitioners of the art of making necessity sound like a virtue than Samajwadi Partyâs canny general secretary Amar Singh. Quizzed by a Telegu Desam Party leader over SPâs U-turn on the India-US nuclear deal, the bespectacled politician said in matter-of-fact manner: ââIn your state, you face Congress. We need power to counter our rival and Congress is not a factor in UP.ââ
SPâs dramatic move to desert the Left-UNPA corner and team up with the Congress is yet another telling example of there being no permanent foes in politics. And if politics is also about timing, few can hold a candle to SP leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh. In just about 24 hours, from Thursday forenoon to Friday noon, they had jumped ship leaving a fractured UNPA and a shocked Left in their wake.
When SP leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh met their âthird frontâ or UNPA partners on Thursday, the Samajwadis had all but signed their deal with Congress to rescue the nuclear pact. Yet, the meeting which lasted more than four hours, droned on with the discussion moving from inflation to expelled BJP leader Babulal Marandi expounding on the political situation in Jharkhand.
Finally, when the conversation turned to the real reason why TDPâs N Chandrababu Naidu, INLD leader Om Prakash Chautala, Asom Gana Parishad chief Brindaban Goswami and Marandi had gathered at Amar Singhâs Lodhi Road residence in Delhi, SPâs top duo was prepared to be fairly candid. Apart from ânew factsâ on the nuclear deal the government had placed on the table through National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, the SP could not lose sight of its âcompulsionsâ â shorthand for BSP.
With BSP successfully poaching minority votes from SP in UP and adding upper castes as well to its own SC base, Mayawatiâs outfit was showing no signs of a slowing down. She was also busy leaning hard on the SP and despite a handsome 39 MPs in Lok Sabha, SP was locked out of the power game at the Centre, a situation that was growing more acute each passing day -- after being ousted in UP even old courtiers were deserting the SP leaders. Added to these political factors were disproportionate assets case against Mulayam and I-T inquiries into the affairs of Amar Singh and his friends.
In their interactions with the Left, SP leaders have strenuously discounted suggestions that their move towards the Congress could be influenced by the cases filed against them. On one occasion Amar Singh made the point that hardly anyone could be more meticulous in tax payments than he had been, having contributed handsomely to the exchequer. In turn he asked the comrades whether the could there be no view on the deal apart from that offered by the Left.
As the SP-Congress engagement picked momentum after the ill-tempered meeting of the Left-UPA panel on the deal on June 25, the deadlines were fairly self-evident. For one, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would need the political backing, not the least in terms of numbers in Lok Sabha, so that he could deliver a âpositiveâ report on the deal when he met US president George Bush in Japan during the July 7-9 G-8 summit. This was crucial as no Congress ally was ready for sacrificing the government to go to the hustings.
After informing the Americans that the domestic logjam over the deal had been broken, the PM was keen to move the International Atomic Energy Agency for ratification of a safeguards agreement no later than mid-July. He does have a bit more time to do so, but Singh has urged the Congress leadership that the deal be moved to the next stage as soon as possible. ââHe has said how long can we wait for Left to change its position when we know that is not possible,ââ said a prime ministerial aide.
Even though not too enthused about taking on the Left over the deal, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi heard out the PMâs arguments. It is possible that she felt that a break with the Left on some issue or the other ahead of the next general election was inevitable. She may also have seen some merit in the argument that a half-done nuclear deal would make the government â and Congress as well â butt of ridicule. Then again, PMâs pressure tactics with careful worded reports on his wish to quit rattled the leadership.
<b>
The first public evidence that Congress was looking to mend fences with the Samajwadis came when they were extended an invitation to the dinner hosted by the PM on UPA completing its fourth year in power in May.</b> Amar Singhâs presence was very much noticed even as the PM discreetly suggested that the voluble SP leader have a word with Sonia Gandhi who was seated not too far away. The ice was broken after years of mutual recrimination.
Left to right: N Chandrababu Naidu (TDP); Brindaban Goswami (AGP); Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP); Amar Singh (SP); Babulal Marandi (JVM); Om Prakash Chautala (INLD). (Illustration: Neelabh)
<b>
SP's U-turn: 24 hours that saved the nuke deal</b>
6 Jul 2008, 0001 hrs IST, Rajeev Deshpande,TNN
There are few better practitioners of the art of making necessity sound like a virtue than Samajwadi Partyâs canny general secretary Amar Singh. Quizzed by a Telegu Desam Party leader over SPâs U-turn on the India-US nuclear deal, the bespectacled politician said in matter-of-fact manner: ââIn your state, you face Congress. We need power to counter our rival and Congress is not a factor in UP.ââ
SPâs dramatic move to desert the Left-UNPA corner and team up with the Congress is yet another telling example of there being no permanent foes in politics. And if politics is also about timing, few can hold a candle to SP leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh. In just about 24 hours, from Thursday forenoon to Friday noon, they had jumped ship leaving a fractured UNPA and a shocked Left in their wake.
When SP leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh met their âthird frontâ or UNPA partners on Thursday, the Samajwadis had all but signed their deal with Congress to rescue the nuclear pact. Yet, the meeting which lasted more than four hours, droned on with the discussion moving from inflation to expelled BJP leader Babulal Marandi expounding on the political situation in Jharkhand.
Finally, when the conversation turned to the real reason why TDPâs N Chandrababu Naidu, INLD leader Om Prakash Chautala, Asom Gana Parishad chief Brindaban Goswami and Marandi had gathered at Amar Singhâs Lodhi Road residence in Delhi, SPâs top duo was prepared to be fairly candid. Apart from ânew factsâ on the nuclear deal the government had placed on the table through National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, the SP could not lose sight of its âcompulsionsâ â shorthand for BSP.
With BSP successfully poaching minority votes from SP in UP and adding upper castes as well to its own SC base, Mayawatiâs outfit was showing no signs of a slowing down. She was also busy leaning hard on the SP and despite a handsome 39 MPs in Lok Sabha, SP was locked out of the power game at the Centre, a situation that was growing more acute each passing day -- after being ousted in UP even old courtiers were deserting the SP leaders. Added to these political factors were disproportionate assets case against Mulayam and I-T inquiries into the affairs of Amar Singh and his friends.
In their interactions with the Left, SP leaders have strenuously discounted suggestions that their move towards the Congress could be influenced by the cases filed against them. On one occasion Amar Singh made the point that hardly anyone could be more meticulous in tax payments than he had been, having contributed handsomely to the exchequer. In turn he asked the comrades whether the could there be no view on the deal apart from that offered by the Left.
As the SP-Congress engagement picked momentum after the ill-tempered meeting of the Left-UPA panel on the deal on June 25, the deadlines were fairly self-evident. For one, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would need the political backing, not the least in terms of numbers in Lok Sabha, so that he could deliver a âpositiveâ report on the deal when he met US president George Bush in Japan during the July 7-9 G-8 summit. This was crucial as no Congress ally was ready for sacrificing the government to go to the hustings.
After informing the Americans that the domestic logjam over the deal had been broken, the PM was keen to move the International Atomic Energy Agency for ratification of a safeguards agreement no later than mid-July. He does have a bit more time to do so, but Singh has urged the Congress leadership that the deal be moved to the next stage as soon as possible. ââHe has said how long can we wait for Left to change its position when we know that is not possible,ââ said a prime ministerial aide.
Even though not too enthused about taking on the Left over the deal, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi heard out the PMâs arguments. It is possible that she felt that a break with the Left on some issue or the other ahead of the next general election was inevitable. She may also have seen some merit in the argument that a half-done nuclear deal would make the government â and Congress as well â butt of ridicule. Then again, PMâs pressure tactics with careful worded reports on his wish to quit rattled the leadership.
<b>
The first public evidence that Congress was looking to mend fences with the Samajwadis came when they were extended an invitation to the dinner hosted by the PM on UPA completing its fourth year in power in May.</b> Amar Singhâs presence was very much noticed even as the PM discreetly suggested that the voluble SP leader have a word with Sonia Gandhi who was seated not too far away. The ice was broken after years of mutual recrimination.