It can no longer be denied that the Congress party is caught in the throes of a crisis. There is no better manifestation of this crisis than the report that the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has actually asked the Congress to give him a clear decision regarding the party’s position on the Indo-US nuclear deal. The first thing that this suggests is that there is discordance between the party and the prime minister on this subject. Mr Singh’s stand on the Indo-US nuclear deal has never wavered from the moment he began negotiations with the government of the United States of America. Mr Singh believes that the deal will benefit India in more ways than one. It is this commitment to the national interest that has driven the prime minister, and he has not been disturbed or distracted by any distant ideological cannonade. The Congress party, unfortunately, has never showed this clarity on the subject. What is worse, it has made no attempt to clarify its own confusion and to iron out its differences. It has spoken in many voices, some against and some for the deal. If the Congress, or significant sections thereof, have serious reservations about the deal, why did it allow Mr Singh to progress with it? If, on the other hand, the party feels the deal is good for the country, then what is all the present fuss about? If it is good for the country, then the deal should go ahead irrespective of the political/electoral consequences.

The prevailing confusion within the Congress is in large part derived from the inexplicable silence of its president, Sonia Gandhi. Winston Churchill once famously described Russia as a “riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”. These words could be used for Ms Gandhi. By refusing to speak her mind, she may have created an allure around her personality, but has failed to provide direction to the party she leads. One consequence of this is that her lieutenants are always trying to second guess her on every subject. Thus the Congress party on the nuclear deal often sounds like a Babel of voices. The other problem is the Congressmen’s perennial fear of losing the loaves and fishes of office. Many Congressmen are not supporting the deal because they are frightened that signing the deal will lead to the fall of the government and therefore loss of the attendant perquisites. Ms Gandhi, for once, should speak her mind in the national interest and take the party out of the doldrums.