Yesterday December 8, 2007, CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat gave an ultimatum to the government: scrap the Indo-US Nuclear deal immediately after the Gujarat polls are over – or face a mid-term general election! Comrade Karat said he refrained from giving this ultimatum earlier because he did not want the BJP to derive political advantage in the Gujarat poll.

Either Comrade Karat is exceptionally stupid or he thinks that the rest of us are stupid. Why did he have to make this threat on the eve of polling day in Gujarat? Would he not know that the threat of impending destabilization of the Union government would immensely help the somewhat uncertain electoral fortunes of Narendra Modi? Surely he would know that. Then why did he not wait to make his threat till polling was over in Gujarat? That would not have weakened in any way his stated objective to derail the N-deal. He could have accomplished it without introducing a new negative factor that could seriously mar Congress fortunes in the Gujarat poll.

It is reasonable to infer that Karat well understands the likely political fallout of his threat. So did he deliberately time his threat to help BJP in the polls? This sounds preposterous. Unless attention is directed to what this scribe wrote in these columns on October 10, 2007. Identifying the forces that were opposing the Indo-US Nuclear deal it was pointed out that the powerful US-China corporate lobby was activating its tentacles both through Washington and Beijing to scuttle the deal. It was pointed out:

“The most influential section of the US media, US big business, China, Israel, pro-Islamists, CPI-M, BJP – they are all on the same side. With one voice they chant the same refrain: ‘Kill the Indo-US Nuclear deal!’ They add up to a formidable group and a powerful voice. Should it be called Leftist? Rightist? Or does money make the world spin?”

Is there any other credible explanation why the CPI-M should have issued its ultimatum just before polling day in Gujarat?

December 9, 2007

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