The Hindu Business Line : Testing time in Winter session

Mid-term poll clouds that hung over the monsoon session may have lifted but the winter session of Parliament, beginning today, may face tempestuous weather that could rock the government’s stability. For one, the Indo-US nuclear deal, that generated much heat and threatened the government’s survival in July-August, is far from settled, though the equations have changed.

The Left parties propping up the UPA coalition are no more telling the Congress: “Choose between the deal and the government.” They are now prepared to discuss the issue under a rule that entails no voting. They also have no objection to government talking to the IAEA on India-specific safeguards so long as government does not operationalise the deal. The softening of the Left stand is seen as stemming from its acute discomfiture over the Nandigram flare-up in its backyard.

Nandigram, that figured largely during the monsoon session, has now assumed more politically significant dimensions, pushing the Left parties into a tight corner. On the other hand, the BJP, leading the main Opposition NDA, has not changed its stand that the deal in its present form is unacceptable.

Interestingly, the BJP has its own bugbear to contend with — the Tehelkha expose of Modi government’s alleged involvement in the post-Godhra carnage, an issue the Congress and the Left are certain to exploit to the hilt. Thus, there are issues that put all the three major players — the Congress, the Left and the BJP — on the backfoot! Will this be insulation against trouble in either House of Parliament? Hardly likely, going by pre-session pronouncements of these parties.

The BJP stalwart Mr L.K. Advani has said: “We believe while a discussion on the nuclear deal is important, no less important is a discussion on Nandigram and the plight of the farmers there.” Going by the current mood, the three-week session cannot fail to be anything but a “winter of discontent.”

(The author, a former Deputy Editor with PTI, is a New Delhi-based freelance journalist. Feedback can be sent to rajamanirc@gmail.com)