Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh proved through the India-US nuclear deal that he knew how to do politics when needed. However, this compromise has not yet been properly appreciated. His close associate and former Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said this on Thursday.
‘Dr.’, organized by the Center for Contemporary Writing Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Museum and Library. He was speaking in the ‘Life and Legacy of Manmohan Singh’ lecture series. Ahluwalia said that the cooperation that exists between India and America today in the field of defense and security would not have been possible without the nuclear deal.
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Manmohan Singh’s wife Gursharan Kaur and Chairman of Prime Minister’s Museum and Library Nripendra Mishra were also present in the programme. Ahluwalia described the India-US nuclear deal as a ‘brilliant step’ by Manmohan Singh. He said a large section of the Congress, the Left and even many in the BJP were against the agreement, so a lot of ‘political management’ had to be done to get it passed.
He said, this was really a brilliant step by Manmohan Singh. In the end the matter reached to such an extent that he offered to submit his resignation to Sonia Gandhi, because there was a lot of pressure on him. The Left parties had threatened to withdraw support from the government, although did not give any concrete reason for it.
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But Manmohan Singh convinced Sonia Gandhi and she allowed him to proceed, Ahluwalia said. Left parties threatened a no-confidence motion. But Manmohan Singh turned it around and presented it as a vote of confidence. Left parties voted against the trust vote. But Manmohan Singh gathered the support of Samajwadi Party, in which he got the support of then President APJ Abdul Kalam, who talked to Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Ahluwalia said, this was great political management by a person who is not generally considered a politician. I believe that the India-US nuclear deal proved that Manmohan Singh knew politics when he felt it was absolutely necessary. Till now it has not been appreciated properly. He also said that it would be an exaggeration to say that the entire Congress was against the nuclear deal, but I can definitely say that a very large number of leaders were against it. I don’t think they understood the real significance of this agreement. This can perhaps be called a deficiency of the government.
