There seems to be more in common between the predicament that faces Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and the dilemma that has dogged Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh than it would appear at first sight.
Fresh from a virtual political victory -- having managed to strike a deal with the Samajwadi Party to keep the United Progressive Alliance government alive in the face of the threatened pullout by the Left parties--Dr Singh is on a firm footing at the G8 Summit in Sapporo, Japan.
The lack of uncertainty over the longevity of his government would now indubitably lend Dr Singh's word a lot more authority and weight than it would have if the SP had not pledged to prop up the government and provided it with the numbers required in case there is a show of strength in Parliament.
The Left Front, with its 59 Members of Parliament, has said that it would pull the plug on July 10 over the Indo-US civil nuclear deal that it has been opposing tooth-and-nail for four years, but the Congress-led UPA is unfazed.
Safe in the knowledge that political stability is assured in India with the numbers game favouring the UPA, at least for the moment, Dr Singh can now strongly put forth India's position on climate change, food security, soaring oil prices, energy security, world economy, etc. on the world stage. He said on Monday that he does not foresee an election before time, and if and when the Left withdraws support to the government, the UPA was well equipped to deal with the problem.
The bilateral and multilateral discussions that he has with leaders of the world's biggest economic powers and members of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group could thus be much more fruitful. The hitherto-embattled Dr Singh could thus revel in statesmanship at the Summit.
On the other hand, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who took charge in September last after his predecessor Shinzo Abe suddenly quit office, finds himself in a similar predicament as Dr Singh did till a few days ago.
As Japan hosts the G8 Summit at a time when the world is facing multiple crises of rising inflation, spiralling food and oil prices, severe credit squeeze, and climate change, Fukuda gets a grand chance to showcase his statecraft internationally.
Although not many G8 Summits have led to quick solutions to problems facing the world, the Japanese prime minister might prefer to stress on Tokyo's specific concerns to have them resolved in a bid to mollify his adversaries back home. India too is likely to make its stand on food security, rising oil prices and climate change very clear at the summit and stress for a combined global response to the crises at hand.
The Summit might help Fukuda win some brownie points with certain quarters in Japan, but the bigger problems that face him might not fade away: the opposition party -- Democratic Party of Japan -- has been baying for his blood as he leads a shaky political set up; and Japan is aghast as its stock market continues to crash in the wake of shocking energy and food prices and the despair it has brought to the world economic order.
Like India, Japan too is due for its general elections next year. Japanese news reports say that Fukuda's popularity ratings are at an abysmal low, leading to the conjecture that Fukuda's own Liberal Democratic Party might sideline him and choose a new leader from amongst its elected representatives to lead the party back to power in the forthcoming elections.
Fukuda's political wisdom and leadership at the G8 Summit would thus be under constant scrutiny, as he tries to beat the domestic heat and assert that he is firmly in saddle.
It is likely that Dr Singh might be better placed than his Japanese counterpart in terms of the durability of the governments they head, but with inflation gathering monstrous proportions in India, stock markets sinking to numbing levels amidst economic hysteria, oil and food prices paralyzing the common man, it might not be a cakewalk in the next battle at the hustling for the Congress and its allies.
