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NT Bureau
New Delhi, Sept 22:

        The one major victim of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's intemperate and uncalled for utterings on Lord Ram seems to be the DMK's ally Congress. Karunanidhi's rabid reflections have pushed things right back into the BJP's hand, and now all the talk for calling for a surprise mid-term election has gone silent.

        And silence is also what the Congress wants its Southern ally DMK and its chief to maintain on the issue. But upsetting the Congress, the DMK and its Ministers (Central) are taking a strong line. Today, the Union Shipping Minister T R Baalu, who has been unduly keen in pushing the Sethusamudram project, made some remarks on the matter that is not bound to go down well with the Congress.

        Reports here suggest that the Congress leadership dialed up Karunanidhi and put in a humble request to refrain from making any more remarks. Party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said as much on Friday: 'On the sensitive issue of Ram Setu, the less said the better. He maintained that his party's views on the existence of Lord Ram remain unchanged though there were divergent opinions expressed on the issue by its constituents in the ruling UPA.

        But the Congress concedes the point that it is no longer in a position to call the shots. 'We were ready for elections till the other day. But now we need some time to assess the situation,' a minister in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's council of ministers has been quoted as saying.

        The Congress leadership has obvioulsy been struggling to formulate a strategy if elections become necessary in the event of the Left withdrawing its support to the government over the India-US nuclear deal.

        On the nuclear deal itself, with the US setting a December deadline for the completion of formalities to operationalise the nuclear deal, the time for shilly-shallying is over. It's compromise or bust and the Congress and Left have till end-October to make a choice. As per the US timetable, India will have to approach the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to conclude a safeguards agreement by October. The agreement is the next step towards operationalising the deal. It could also be the trigger for a snap poll as the Left has threatened to withdraw support if the government talks safeguards with the IAEA.