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And what explains it.

Today’s Hindu carries a gushing interview with the leader of the opposition, L.K.Advani, by the newspaper’s editor-in-chief.  Mr Advani is asked no hard questions and even his comments on strategic relationship with America draw no reproach from Mr Ram. Elsewhere, ”Advaniji” is described as the ”formidable” leader of NDA. Most shockingly, The Hindu–of all newspapers–virtually declares NDA as victors in the next general elections! In fact, The Hindu’s front page displays the inconceivable: Mr Advani is given more coverage than the usual suspects–Karat et al.

Considering Hindu’s ideological hatred of BJP and its tendency act on instrucutions of the Communist bosses, this sudden affection for BJP is surprising indeed. So what’s up? Here is one possible scenario.

As the Indian Express gleefully recounts, Prakash Karat has been hit particularly hard by the government’s decision to approach the IAEA. Two months after Mr Karat virtually declared victory over the government, he is in serious danger of losing the veto on the deal as well as the government. While Communist’s ideological cohesion may have prevented an open expression of dissent, leaders like Sitaram Yechury–seen as more pragmatic– are unlikely to agree completely with Mr Karat.

Therefore, Mr Karat desperately needs to win on the nuclear deal. The easiest way would have been to simply defeat the government on the floor of the house. Unfortunately, for the Communists, SP’s support threatens to ruin their game plan. The government may yet lose the confidence vote but that is not something Karat can rely on.

What Karat is attempting to do now is to sow the seeds of division in the Congress party. It is an open secret that Congress has little interest in pursuing the deal–the party apparatus would rather save the government. Manmohan Singh’s intransigence has forced the party to dump the Left. However, the Congress leaders realize that neither the prime minister nor the nuclear deal will win them too many seats in the next elections.

By focusing their attack on the prime minister, and by declaring Pranab Mukherjee as ”innocent” and ”betrayed” the Left is attempting to isolate Dr Singh (see this). Case in point: A.B Bardhan’s interview in CNN-IBN where he suggests that a rapprochement with the Congress part is possible–minus Dr Singh of course. The Communist game plan is to make Dr Singh a political hot potato so that even Sonia Gandhi–the real power behind the throne–is forced to dump him.

So what about Hindu’s coverage of BJP and especially its insistence on anointing Mr Advani as the next prime minister? Its a subtle message to the Congress which signals a willingness to embrace the anit-Congress-ism of yore. After all, only decades ago, BJP and the Left had jointly supported V.P Singh’s bid for power. It does not mean that Communists will align with the BJP. That may be too politically costly. All that is required is to refuse support to the UPA after the next elections if it is within striking distance of power. Or at least threaten to do so if the Left doesn’t get its way.

For now, the warning will suffice.