Nuclear deal that Congress government was successful in getting it past was something which BJP vehemently opposed. But, BJP ended up getting ridiculed and their supporters disheartened. Some supportes thought BJP was indeed wrong. But I believe BJP never argued its case well enough.
1) BJP was criticized on the fact that BJP started this negotiation, thus the implication was that they wanted this deal when they were in power, and they are now opposing it for opposition's sake. But, starting a negotiation does not mean accepting a negative and unfavorable outcome. BJP was ineffective in emphasizing this simple and logical point - they did try but were ineffective.
In fact, Mr. Ashley Tellis in his interview mentioned that BJP was offered a similar deal, but BJP refused it as they did not like the provisions.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/19inter1.htm
How come this vital interview was never a part of the debate?
2) Mr. Shourie wrote some wonderful articles on the issue. They were factual and compelling. Rest of the media chose to ignore those articles for most part (this in general is the story with Mr. Shourie's articles). But BJP as a party should have publicized them and challenged the political and journalistic class to counter what Mr. Shourie wrote. Those articles are gems, they should be preserved as such and used as such.
BJP supporters should read mr. Shourie's articles (see below), Mr. Kapil Sibal's reply (which seemed quite muddled - I could not find the link as of now) and Mr. Tellis' interview (link given above). This is a great case study for us armchair supporters of BJP. This is worth the time.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-fabrications-of-government/249183/
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/necessity-is-the-mother-of-fabrication-too/248747/
http://www.indianexpress.com/fullcoverage/arun-shourie/7
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/facts-versus-the-governments-fiction/19137/8/3
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-way-out/19185/
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-nonbinding-myth/18995/
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/but-you-must-wait-for-the-123-agreement/18935/
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/time-to-deal-with-the-aftermath/17571/
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/not-one-concern-has-registered/17492/
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/now-let-the-pm-square-this-circle/17431/
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/parity-did-you-say/11240/
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/an-empty-claim/358446/
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/but-there-is-nothing-new/357893/
My conclusion is that it was an open and shut case for BJP, and BJP fought valiantly but lost because of a combination of two reasons - 1) media is full of people who are plain and simple stupid (though they might be regarded as the smart ones) and 2) BJP did not try enough.
I hope from this incident in history, we learn something for the future.
