"we cannot become a frog in the well" ..... Manmohan Singh had gone to Cambridge & Oxford while Prakash Karat - India's dogmatic Stalinist had been to University of Edinburgh .. and when it came to Nuke deal 2008 ....they fought !!

Prakash Karat -- a well known hardliner in following his Marxism. In 2008 he withdrew support to the Manmohan Singh government. He expelled Somnath Chatterjee from the CPI-M for not resigning as the Lok Sabha Speaker. 

In 2007 and 2008 as the person deciding the Left strategy in Parliament - record 62 MPs in Lok Sabha together - Karat "frustrated" Dr Manmohan Singh at every turn. 

In his view liberalizing the economy and joining world trade would simply give Washington, the greater control over the country. 

Dr Manmohan Singh handled Karat in his own way - albeit assisted by his media advisor Sanjaya Baru.  

In an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, the Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) had said: "I told them that it is not possible to renegotiate the deal. It is an honourable deal, the cabinet has approved it, we cannot go back on it. 

I told them to do whatever they want to do, if they want to withdraw support, so be it.." 

He was referring to his conversation with the CPI-M strongman Prakash Karat and the CPI top leader A.B. Bardhan hours after the Left released a statement on the nuclear deal. 

On the UPA-Left relationship, Dr Singh had said it could not be a one-sided affair. 

"I don't get angry, I don't want to use harsh words. They are our colleagues and we have to work with them. But they also have to learn to work with us."

In the western media, 'Newsweek' summed up India's polity with an apt headline -- "A Red Scare in Delhi". 

The article said - Prakash Karat - India's reigning communist ideologue -- "fighting to kill his country's economic and political reform process".  

"That's because.... (the magazine said) ..

the Congress party-led coalition has a razor-thin majority in Parliament, which has forced it to lean on Karat for support, turning him into a kingmaker and a potential spoiler".   

On the Left's fears that the 123 Agreement would draw India further into a strategic alliance with the US, rendering it an American satellite, 

Singh said: "How can we ever become anyone's satellite? Yes, we live in an increasingly interdependent world but the challenge before us is to forge new linkages, widen our strategic options and, at the same time, guard against the negative side of globalisation."

Although he did not directly attack the Left's stand on the US as outdated or alarmist, he made his meaning clear by referring to the way communist countries were dealing with the superpower China, he pointed out, had a huge trade surplus with the US but was not worried about losing its independence. 

"Look at Vietnam, look at China -- out of fear of dealing with the US, we cannot become a frog in the well," Singh had said.