UPA government under strain
Congress and Left drift apart on policy
A war of nerves clearly defines relations between the Congress-led UPA government and the Left in India. The divergence of opinion that has surfaced over the civilian nuclear deal between Delhi and Washington appears to threaten the stability of a government which depends on the support of the Left for its survival. Now that CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat has publicly warned against any operationalising of the deal between the United States and India and has even spoken of serious consequences if the warning is not heeded, politics in the country looks set to take a turn toward unpredictability. Karat's warning has not, at least on the surface, unnerved the government. For once in a long time, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been sounding tough, to the extent that he has dared the Left to withdraw support from the government.
The threat from the Left obviously places the government in something of a bind, considering especially the fact that the nuclear deal with the US has reached a stage where Washington has made it known it is in no mood for renegotiations. And with the Manmohan Singh government already known for its close, and still developing, ties with the Americans, it is fairly easy to understand that there is little likelihood of a backing down on its part. And that precisely is where the problem lies. A fundamental premise upon which the UPA government has been working so far is the support the Left has given it, a reason for such support being to prop up secular forces after a spate of Hindu fundamentalist government in the shape of the BJP and its allies. The alliance between the government and the Left has certainly put a check on any resurgence, for the moment, of the religious rightwing. Yet it is also true that over the past many months clear differences over policy issues have emerged between the Left and the Singh government. The CPI(M) has opposed a number of economic reforms initiated by the government and also made known its reservations about such issues as India's vote against Iran's nuclear programme and its participation in naval exercises with the US, Japan and Australia in September.
The honeymoon between the government and the Left may be over, as a communist leader has suggested. It will be interesting to see, though, how the situation pans out.
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