News & Views

The war within

Coalition politics provided fodder for the media as the main UPA Government partners sparred with each other in August over India’s nuclear pact with the US. Headlines from national newspapers made interesting reading as the story unfolded:

August 8	:	LEFT waves red flag at Indo-US 123 N-pact
August 12	:	PM nukes comrades on US deal
August 13	:	LEFT’s barbs fail to wound
August 14	:	Government may survive, but with scars
August 15	:	Karat meets PM, but fire still rages
August 17	:	LEFT-Government face-off: Neither’s blinking
August 18	:	LEFT puts Government on notice, polls loom
August 20	:	Government agrees to Expert Body No talks with IAEA, till Panel Report’s out: LEFT
August 21	:	Government prepares for life after LEFT
August 23	:	Fireworks after August 29
August 24	:	Government, LEFT reach uneasy truce
August 25	:	Both sides work on their calculators
August 26	:	Where does the Nation’s well-being lie?
September 1	:	Can’t miss bus of N-renaissance: PM

Story on the sides

The LEFT’s stand at the Centre caused jitters in the two left ruled States: West Bengal and Kerala. A survey carried out by a national newspaper revealed that citizens in these two States were unhappy with the LEFT and against its stand and were strongly with the Government. Further surveys revealed the citizens terming the LEFT as ‘anti-people, pro-China and anti-national’. This caused further worry to the State Governments, specially the "anti-national" tag.

As if to add fuel to the fire, the Chinese media devoted full front-page space to the political situation in India. News reports in India indicated that China was happy that the India-USA nuclear deal was in trouble.

Through all this debate, the other partners of the UPA Government pledged their support to the Congress, ignoring the LEFT. August 29, has passed and the Government appears to have survived, but it seems to be an ‘uneasy truce’ at best.