Aye

Finally on Tuesday, the Lok Sabha redeemed in some measure the promise of the previous day. Amidst varied distractions, MPs revealed their parties’ tryst with the future — and the quality of debate met the standards set on Monday. When moments after the House reassembled after the “bribery” disruptions, Omar Abdullah brought proceedings to a coherent keel by eloquently reminding his fellow MPs what the session was about, and thereby underlining the majesty of the site. In Lok Sabha, one speaks in one’s own name, and Abdullah told off those who’d presume to strike down a policy by citing the preferences of a particular community. “I fail to understand how the (nuclear) deal is anti-Muslim and why religion-based politics is being brought into this,” he said. His time was short, the consequence of his National Conference’s small numbers in Lok Sabha; and perhaps it was the brevity of his submission that brought attention back to the real matter at hand: a debate on how India should deal with the world.

Three views were on offer — the Congress’s, the BJP’s and Left’s. The Congress party lost no time to celebrate its faith in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ability to pull off India’s second great reform: this time in foreign policy. But the NDA too will know that its own path has been cleared, if and when it comes to power. Rahul Gandhi was not driving divisions into the BJP’s ranks when he thanked Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the groundwork; it was a statement of fact. The BJP, having opposed the Indo-US nuclear deal, has gone to some lengths to nuance its position to factor in its own inclination to strategic partnership with the US. Its long-time allies like the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiv Sena have been amazingly frank in declaring that their vote on Tuesday was against support to the Congress-led UPA, not the nuclear deal. The Left, for its part, has been steadfast in its ideological opposition to a pro-US tilt. So, if from Tuesday’s vote a sense of the House were to be extrapolated, the magnitude of confidence in the deal was far in excess of that in the UPA government. More significantly, there is little to suggest that the deal will be reversed.

This is, indeed, about more than the nuclear deal. Now, it is with democratic sanction that India negotiates its place in the new world order — a negotiation based on its strategic interests, and without the exclusionary costs that it has borne for more than three decades for keeping it nuclear programme. Don’t be blindsided by Tuesday’s disruptions. India’s democracy has scored another victory.