Recently, various sources have mentioned that the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, is a “sad” and “embarrassed” man, and feels terribly let down by the UPA allies, because they did not come out in full-throated support of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal. If he did indeed speak his mind to the UPA allies at a meeting held ahead of the UPA-Left committee meet on October 22, he can hardly be blamed.

By now it is apparent that those of the UPA allies, particularly chiefs of such parties as the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the DMK, and even the Nationalist Congress Party, who went along with the Cabinet deliberations on the deal, took a step back when it became clear that the Left leaders, particularly the CPI(M) General-Secretary, Mr Prakash Karat, would not hesitate to topple the government on this issue.

Even as the equity market went into a tizzy — much before the P-Notes turbulence was unleashed — the UPA allies started the damage control exercise. On their own admission, both the RJD chief, Mr Lalu Prasad, and the DMK president, Mr M. Karunanidhi, spoke to the Congress(I) chief, Ms Sonia Gandhi, and protested against the sacrificing of the UPA government on one single issue which they said was quite unnecessary.

And, hence, at the Hindustan Times Leadership summit in New Delhi on October 12, first the Prime Minister said it would not be “the end of life” if the deal was sacrificed. Ms Gandhi too said all the right things about how, in a coalition, you have to take on board the interests and concerns of all the partners, and how the Left is entitled to its views. Is the Left being unreasonable, she was asked. “Oh no, I don’t think they are unreasonable,” was the categorical reply.

For a while it was all hunky-dory, but just when the dust had settled down, the nuke deal is once again causing tremors. It is becoming more and more clear that the Congress(I) leadership, even while making soothing noises about putting the deal on hold while a consensus was thrashed out, had some hidden plan of pushing the deal through in such a manner that it became a fait accompli, that could not be reversed.

All this when the Left has made it more than clear that saving the deal is only possible at the cost of the Government. And past record tells us that the Left leaders indulge in less sabre-rattling than other politicians, and don’t find it as easy to suddenly change tack or find excuses for an about-turn.

That given, it is surprising that Dr Singh and perhaps the Congress(I) high command too, seem hell-bent on pushing the nuclear deal through. Is it only because a country where masses are starved for energy desperately needs such technology? Or is there more than meets the eye in the whole brouhaha pertaining to the nuke deal?

Anyway, an unlikely combination — the Left parties, on the one hand, and the SEBI chief, Mr M. Damodaran, on the other — have ensured that we at least go through a peaceful Diwali.

The latter gave the equity market an overdose of pre-Diwali crackers by the sudden announcement on P-Notes and then went on to calm frayed nerves by a series of measures that have been reported in detail elsewhere in these columns. And the former has pushed the do-or-die deadline to November 16, when the UPA and Left meet again on this issue.

We have to brace for more fireworks ahead as nobody is ruling out early elections with the kind of conviction they did barely a week ago. But even if there is an early election, and one has to go through the pain of long-winded election schedules and is forced to listen to the empty promises politicians make, a proper election it will be, as free and fair as can possibly be held in such a populous country.

Compare this to Pakistan, where the two political supremos had to wage such a huge battle for what our politicians take for granted — contesting an election.

The Pakistan Muslim League chief, Mian Nawaz Sharif, was allowed to land on Pakistan soil, after a directive by the Pakistan Supreme Court, but was immediately bundled out of the country and forced to return to Saudi Arabia. This is the truth, even though Gen Pervez Musharraf’s spokesmen might give us tall talk on how Mr Sharif chose “the Saudi palace over a Pakistani prison”.

Ms Benazir Bhutto of the Pakistan People’s Party could land on Pakistani soil thanks to a prior deal worked out with Gen Musharraf, which promised him the presidency for the privilege of her return home, even as the regime developed a temporary amnesia on the corruption charges against her and her husband Mr Asif Zardari. But no sooner had she landed than an attempt was made on her life. And from all accounts, and considering that RDX was used by the suicide-bomber, it appears to have been so well-planned that it could not have been made without logistics support and expertise from a potent organisation.

Ms Bhutto herself has pointed a finger at one of Pakistan’s Intelligence agencies, and, of course, the charge has been denied. Now there is speculation that she might want to leave the country, at least temporarily, and run her election campaign from Dubai or some other city. But it appears that there is a bar against her leaving Pakistan too.

Have we not been told that the Bush administration was breathing down Gen Musharraf’s neck to ensure that he allows a full-fledged democracy to return to Pakistan? Of course, he and his minions can turn around and argue that he can’t be blamed for every suicide bomber who decided to embrace ‘martyrdom’. And many assassination attempts have been made on him too.

But imagine a ‘free and fair’ election in Pakistan in which Mr Sharif is missing and Ms Bhutto is forced to campaign from outside? The independence of the lame-duck government that such a “democratic exercise” throws up can well be imagined. It would be but a toy in the hands of the President, who is none other than Gen Musharraf himself, sans his army uniform, but with unfettered powers.

These powers would be exercised on a government that would be lack the only two strong and internationally known politicians thrown up by Pakistan’s brief acquaintances with democracy.

At the Incredible India@60 celebrations that one participated in at New York last month, seeing the blitzkrieg — Incredible India posters on Nasdaq, city tour buses, and all over Times Square, with Yale and Harvard universities co-hosting some of the events, Bollywood songs and dances mesmerising crowds at the Bryant Park in Manhattan, etc. — a question kept cropping up.

While Indian-Americans must surely have lapped up all this, how did the Pakistanis in New York feel about this projection of a resurgent, confident India? As the India growth story was being hailed by Cisco and Vodafone CEOs, what was happening in their home country? It was moving closer to the brink, with all kinds of terrorist outfits grouping there not only to target India but wage their brand of jihad on any infidel who dared to question their interpretation of Islam.

So, when I met a Pakistani Kashmiri — who has grown up in London and works for a pharma major in New Jersey — this question had to be raised. Her reply, which doesn’t require a post-script, went thus: “I asked a Pakistani saleswoman in a 7-11 Store how she faced the prevailing hatred against Pakistanis in the post9/11 era, and she said: ‘But I tell everybody that I’m an Indian’.”

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