Left left stranded on nuke deal

5 Jul 2008, 0157 hrs IST, Rajeev Deshpande,TNN NEW DELHI: When CPM boss Prakash Karat told his Left partners on Friday that time had come to withdraw support to the Manmohan Singh government, it was a moment that had been anticipated for much too long. But comrades' sense of relief at ending a relationship long devoid of trust and any sense of shared purpose was dampened by the inescapable conclusion that they had come off worse in the bruising showdown over the India-US nuclear deal. It was not nice to know that despite 59 Lok Sabha MPs, Left had been out flanked on the issue of the nuclear deal that it was determined to stop. The Left had hardly anticipated that it would be hustled out of its arrangement with Congress in a manner and at a time not of its choosing. So confident were they about holding all the cards as far... [read full story]