India-US nuclear deal: PM risked his government and triumphed

Addressing the nation for the first time from the ramparts of Delhi's Red Fort, on August 15, 2004, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared, playing on Robert Frost's lines, "Today, I have no promises to make, but I have promises to keep." The reference being to the fact that his agenda in office would be defined by the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) arrived at between the constituents of the coalition he headed. It is not a secret that almost every important policy initiative taken by the first United Progressive Alliance government (UPA 1), save the nuclear deal, was embedded in the NCMP.

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