India's strategic community is outraged after Network 18 broke the news that the government has virtually given up on the Indo-US nuclear deal. India's political class has bartered away national interest at the altar of petty politics, is the unanimous opinion.

The nuclear deal is dead and with it the Congress party's credibility and Manmohan Singh's image . So say the country's top strategic experts. Some are even calling for Manmohan Singh to quit for having so meekly put petty political interest over national interest

K Subrahmanyam, Strategic Affairs Analyst, said, "I don't think the Prime Minister should continue to lend his name to this government."

Analysts say India will not just lose face internationally, it will say bye-bye to similar deals with Russia and France, which means its fuel strapped nuclear power plants, currently working at 50% capacity, will sooner than later slip into a coma.

Another Strategic Affairs Analyst K Santhanam, says politics has dominated over common sense and national interest.

The next American President will almost certainly demand more concessions from India, says Subrahmanyam. Using a cricketing analogy, he says India has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. But another parallel can also be drawn, "Our maharajas handed over power to the East India Company - something similar is happening today among the three parties - the Congress, BJP and Communists. All three have not put national interest on top of their agenda," he quips.

In the 60s and the 70s, America used to say India had no will to power. Manmohan Singh's UPA has successfully re-inforced that image 40 years later.