Lalu sells the nuke deal
Jyoti Malhotra -
Friday, July 11, 2008 1:13 PM
Rank opportunism or cold blooded realpolitik? On Friday morning, as the UPA’s allies streamed out of a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee laughed so heartily at his own slip of tongue (“we have just concluded a UPA-Left meeting”!) that it seemed quite clear that the Congress party had managed to stitch up enough people to safely go through the vote of confidence in parliament later this month.
Once again, though, the last word must belong to Lalu Prasad Yadav, leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Much has been made of Lalu’s homespun politics, his deadly wit delivered in deadpan style. Today was no exception.
Asked by a TV reporter what the Indo-US nuclear deal was about, Lalu replied in his inimitable manner : “Yeh sauda sirf America ke saath nahin hai, yeh sauda kisi bhi desh ke saath ho sakta hai (This deal is not only with America, this deal will enable India to trade with the world).”
It was his use of the Hindi word, “sauda,” with its countless interpretations of bargaining, hustling, transacting, even horse-trading, that will, in the end, strongly impact the minds of his audience. Unconfirmed reports that fence-sitter MPs have asked for as much as Rs 3 crores for supporting the Congress government's vote of confidence on the nuclear deal refuse to go away.
Indians understand the value of a transaction, a sale, an exchange, a quid pro quo, like nothing else. After all, in the good ol’ days of socialism, when goods were few and the market was demonised, we learnt to juggle and bandy, barter and bourse, and basically, drive a bargain. It helped that India’s 7600 km-long coastline had, over the centuries, spawned traders and adventurers and explorers who traveled the sea lanes in search of good game.
That’s why Prakash Karat, general secretary of the CPM, must be respected. He stands firm when the hurly-burly’s crashing all around him, forthright in a sea of shifting allegiances and alliances. The Congress party thought nothing of cutting a deal with the Samajwadi party, and vice-versa, because they’ve all been there before, in some incarnation or another.
To think Hinduism could be accused of encouraging the false tongue, the wily wink of the eye. God forbid ! It’s the era of endless possibilities, lets look at it this way.
Why didn’t the UPA think of unleashing the inimitable Lalu on the nuclear deal before? He did more to sell the deal in those few seconds this morning than lots of others have done these past months. To think the Left parties did not understand that countries like Russia and China had told Delhi that it would not be able to conduct trade in high-technologies and nuclear goods, if the Indo-US nuclear deal was not passed.
It helps, of course, that Lalu’s party has 24 MPs in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, which is why no one dare boo in his hearing or spit behind his back. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on the other hand, the architect of the nuclear deal and one of India’s most visionary men, has never managed to pass that particular people’s test.