You don`t say!
Darius Nakhoonwala
Strong evidence that most editors are self-obsessed, opinionated and dance to the piper`s tune came once again last week over the fuss about the Indo-US nuclear deal. The edits were shrill, repetitive and, above all, uninformative. Each major paper took the party line, so to speak. The reader was last in the minds of the editors.
Thus The Pioneer opened with this salvo (because the BJP was left out of the committee that has been formed to discuss the deal). " It is astonishing that the Congress should try to bypass Parliament and ignore the Opposition by striking a private deal with the Left. The committee that is being set up by the Congress to discuss the finer nuances of the 123 Agreement and the implications of the Hyde Act with the Left lacks legitimacy and cannot supplant Parliament where the India-US nuclear deal should be discussed… They have slyly worked out a `political mechanism` to protect each other from being made accountable for their acts of omission and commission... Such an illegitimate arrangement cannot be accepted, not least because it makes a mockery of Parliament and repudiates all notions of open governance; the birth of this `political mechanism` that has so delighted the Congress and the Left is a blot on our democracy and must be resisted…"
The paper, however, failed to explain L K Advani had done two somersaults on the nuclear deal, first opposing it and then supporting it.
The Hindu took exactly the opposite line, indicating where its political sympathies lie. " The announcement of a committee to look into some specific aspects of the India-United States nuclear agreement is a welcome development." It then explained why it had first supported the deal at the of July and then started to oppose it. "This newspaper endorsed the 123 Agreement as just and honourable with a few caveats, the principal one being that it should not lead to a further erosion of India`s external independence…To have brushed aside these objections imperiously and moved ahead to enter into a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency would have been to behave like a majority government that it is not… Such a course would have imperilled the government… There is no guarantee that the differences will be resolved in the committee…it is important that the government addresses the concerns voiced by the BJP over the possible constraints to the development of the strategic option and over the consequences of a nuclear test…"
The Telegraph edit also did not leave the reader much wiser. " The rapprochement arrived at between the Left and the Congress to prevent the immediate downfall of the United Progressive Alliance government can be very conveniently interpreted by supporters of the Left as a setback for Mr Singh. The latter`s lobby might argue that the prime minister has actually emerged stronger out of the crisis, since once he was beleaguered by the CPI(M), the entire Congress party rallied behind him. What is even more important is that nowhere in the compromise formula is there an undertaking that the government would back down from the Indo-US nuclear deal…. the truce is temporary. Mr Singh would do well not to wait till the next skirmish. The writing on the wall is clear even though the sentence is yet to be completed."
The Indian Express, which has emerged as a rather undiscriminating supporter of the deal, wrote two edits in quick succession. In all, it has written over 30 since
Yes, but what did all this mean? Merely that "the government does look less in crisis`" The paper then asked whether this government would remain effective and said , no, it wouldn`t. "Do the Congress and Manmohan Singh want to run a government that is so hobbled? Do they want to buy time from the Left, and then some more? And does the Left want to live with this fundamental unease with the policies of a government it supports? Now that the immediate crisis has been staved off, let both parties think seriously about how they have both become part of the problem. Elections are the solution."
Are they now, by jove?
The Asian Age focused on the BJP and its leader L K Advani. But it was such a confused edit that even I gave up.