The precipitous retreat of the Government of India after all the talk and aggressive behaviour of both Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh over the 123 Agreement has shocked the media. That was almost the last thing it expected. ?Is the Prime Minister eating his words?? asked The Indian Express (October 13), ?No comment? was its own answer. The paper said: ?It appears from the suggestive and politically cohabitative noises now emanating from the capital that a strange tentativeness has entered the thinking on the nuclear deal. There is an uncertainty wavering that can be discerned from the utterances of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as well as the Congress president Sonia Gandhi so far as the much tom-tommed nuclear deal is concerned? the paper said. Quoting freely from past utterances of both the Congress President and the Prime Minister in the past the paper seemed to be taken by surprise by their latest utterances. ?What more can we say?? the paper wondered.
Deccan Herald (October 15) thought that ?the two top UPA leaders would have avoided the embarrassment of publicly announcing a go-slow approach of the deal if only they had a realistic assessment of the political pulse of their Left partners? opposition to the deal.? ?Was all this just a political brinkmanship intended to force the Left to accept the deal? What prompted the Congress to talk of midterm polls?, the paper asked. The paper noted the Congress change in stance that showed that the party was ?rather keen to opt for the certainty of another 20 months? tenure in office than an election? and added: ?For this, the party is also willing to put the nuclear deal on the back-burner even though aware that it would have to tackle a Left that would be more aggressive and assertive after having forced the Congress to blink.?
The paper said the change in policy of the Congress was ?certainly a blow to India'sglobal aspirations and a diminution of its international stature when New Delhi makes commitments to foreign governments that it can'tdeliver on because of internal opposition, even when it strikes deals that are transparently in its own interest?. It added: ?By backing down after having raised the bar so high, the government has signaled, in effect, that it is weak and open to blackmail, on any issue by any pressure group in Parliament.?
A columnist, Gautam Adhikari, writing in The times of India (October 15) gave a lot of credit to Prakash Karat, General Secretary of the CPM. ?The way this man?a neophyte in national affairs till just a few years ago?had developed his power based while sticking to his beliefs and an expired ideology is truly awe-inspiring? gushed Shri Adhikari. The columnist said that Karat ?may not have the power, at least not yet, to implement public policy in line with his belief system, but he can stop India in its tracks when he wants (and) actually he has done so.?
As for the Prime Minister the columnist wrote: ?Oh, and the Prime Minister, yes, he is a nice man. Very nice. In fact, nothing but nive?.
Not many newspapers are happy with Sonia Gandhi'schoice of her son Rahul Gandhi as General Secretary of the Congress in charge of the youth and student wing of the party. Wrote The Hindu (September 25): ?The moment Sonia Gandhi?who had kept clear of any formal role after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi?overcame her reluctance and agreed to become president of the Indian National Congress sin 1998, it became clear that the attempt to find leadership outside India'sbest-known political family had collapsed.? The paper noted that ?the pre-eminent leadership of the party has been out of (Nehru-Gandhi) family'shands for just nine of the 60 years of Independence?, but then ?the future has not been in much doubt from the time Rahul Gandhi decided in 2004 to stake his claim to it from the family stronghold of Amethi?From then, it has been a quick climb to the general secretaryship of the party?. The editorial was headed: ?From heir apparent to heir manifest??and that tells its own story.
The Tribune (September 27) said that Rahul'sfather, Rajiv was inducted into the top leadership of the Congress in almost the same manner as the son is now being inducted. The paper said, somewhat cynically, that Rahul's?record as a parliamentarian and party campaigner is well known??implying that neither is much to write home about. What is surprising about Rahul'sappointment now, the paper noted ?is that it took her (Sonia Gandhi) so long to take it?. What is significant is the scepticism that is prevalent in the media about Rahul Gandhi'stalents as a possible leader of the party.
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