New Delhi, July 3: The Samajwadi Party cut a predictable route from lofty rhetoric to hard realpolitik today, beginning with a passionate resolve to stick to anti-deal constituents of the UNPA and ending with a Kalam-backed declaration in favour of the nuclear deal and the UPA.
In a crafty move to secure credible sanction for a political deal with the Congress, the Mulayam Singh Yadav-Amar Singh duo drove to A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s Rajaji Marg bungalow this evening and emerged to announce that the former President — “scientist”, Bharat Ratna and Muslim — had told them the nuclear agreement was good for the country.
“The former President has told us that the deal should be seen above politics and in national interest,” Amar told journalists; standing beside him, Mulayam nodded assent.
Kalam was quoted by the Samajwadi leaders as explaining that there was no harm in going ahead with the deal for nuclear fuel supply till the country succeeded in tapping thorium to produce green energy.
Mulayam himself said the former President felt the deal was in the national interest. If there was a missing piece to the arrangement the Congress has desperately been seeking with the Samajwadis, Kalam seemed to have provided it.
The Samajwadis’ UNPA partners — the TDP, AGP and Om Prakash Chautala’s INLD — must now ponder their course as Mulayam employs Amar to finalise the terms of the bargain with the Congress.
The evening outing of Mulayam and Amar struck a stark contrast to the morning when they had stood with the UNPA pantheon — Chandrababu Naidu, Yerran Naidu, Chautala and Brindaban Goswami of the AGP — cutting a resolute picture of unity.
But the rift in the ranks was clear even then. While TDP and INLD leaders said the Prime Minister’s clarification of last night had not convinced them, the Samajwadi leaders made no such protestation.
As some allies conceded later, the Samajwadi Party has apparently made up its mind to go the other way.
For the Samajwadis, a stamp of approval from Kalam serves their purpose. Not only is it an endorsement by a technocrat who has played a role in the country’s nuclear programme, it also comes from a Muslim who the BJP promoted to the country’s highest office — one stone, the SP would like to believe, to neutralise both the BJP and the BSP.
Earlier, at a media conference, Amar was asked if he remembered how the Samajwadis had refused support to the Congress only a few years ago. Singh conveniently termed it an “error”.
