The Manmohan Singh government’s foreign policy is again threatening to become a domestic flashpoint, pushing the Congress on the backfoot and giving the opposition much-needed oxygen after its crushing defeat in the recent Lok Sabha polls.
After pillorying the government last Friday for agreeing to an Indo-Pakistan joint statement peppered with controversial formulations, the opposition was in action again on Tuesday. It tore into the government for bowing to terms and conditions for intrusive inspection of sensitive defence equipment purchased from the United States.
The government was defensive and unconvincing on both issues, with external affairs minister SM Krishna saying in the Lok Sabha, “There is nothing extraordinary in what we are doing. We are conscious of what we are doing. There is nothing wrong in it.”
But it is the Congress’s silence that is surprising. The party has virtually washed its hands of the twin controversies and passed the buck to the government. ‘You should ask the government,’ is the stock answer of spokespersons and leaders.
The party’s stand suggests that president Sonia Gandhi has distanced herself from government decisions for now. Like she did on the nuclear deal in Singh’s first term, she seems to have adopted a wait-and-watch policy to see how things play out politically.
When Singh returned from Washington with the nuclear deal in July 2005, the Congress kept its distance. When the government reversed India’s traditional policy on Iran by going along with the US on Tehran’s nuclear programme, the Congress was mum again. It was only later, when relations with the Left nosedived, that the party came out strongly in support of the deal.
