Nor does it lie in the creation of a new portfolio like Minority Affairs (whose effectiveness might be limited), and the induction of old Gandhi-family loyalists like Messrs SK Shinde and AR Antulay, with a few younger faces like Mr. Jairam Ramesh.

The true highlight is the removal of the Petroleum portfolio from Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar's charge. With this, Dr.Singh has signalled that he is willing to sacrifice India's sovereign right to determine her energy policy. He's kowtowing to the United States like no other Indian Prime Minister has done.

This is happening just when the US is issuing fatwas to India. Dr. Singh has inflicted grievous damage upon the nation's sovereignty.

Mr. Aiyar was undoubtedly one of Dr. Singh's most dynamic and highly thought-of ministers. He dedicatedly pursued two vital agendas: secure India's oil/gas supplies, and promote energy cooperation within Asia, including a hydrocarbon grid stretching all the way from Turkey to Japan.

Mr. Aiyar was responsible for launching Sino-Indian energy cooperation, including joint bids for oil exploration in third countries. The story grabbed a front-page banner headline in The Financial Times.

Even Mr. Aiyar's detractors praise his extraordinary dynamism, vision, and grasp of his complex subject. He was rated the best minister by The Hindustan Times and India Today (a magazine hostile to Centre-Left causes and ideas).

Mr. Aiyar has been a strong votary of the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, which the Americans oppose -- "absolutely," in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's words. US policy-makers have linked Iran to the July 18 nuclear cooperation deal with India. They want India to join them in isolating Iran. Under their pressure, Dr. Singh has been dithering on the pipeline. He has expressed unreasonable doubts about its viability.

In September, India broke ranks with the Non-Aligned Group at the International Atomic Energy Agency and voted for a US-sponsored resolution against Iran. Since then, India has shed all pretence of independence and tailed Washington.

On January 25, US ambassador David Mulford violated all norms of diplomatic conduct and warned: if India doesn't vote against Iran at the IAEA, the consequences would be "devastating" for the nuclear deal.

The furore caused by this hadn't subsided when another disclosure came: the US opposes India's decision to buy a Syrian oilfield in partnership with China. A senior official said: "We are being told whom to do business with. Today, it is Iran, tomorrow it may be Sudan or Venezuela. At stake is our right to take decisions by ourselves." Such meddling in India's sovereign policy-space is unprecedented.

It's against this background of interference in India's affairs that Mr. Aiyar was stripped of Petroleum. The decision was either taken under US pressure, or driven by a desire to please Washington. Both damage sovereignty and diminish India to the status of a Banana Republic which must dance to Washington's tune.

Unless India resists, the US will interfere in more and more ministries, including policies and personnel. Demarches will follow on trade, education, telecom, power, and UN organisations. This would be corrosive of democracy itself.

One needn't be a fire-breathing nationalist to say this (This writer certainly isn't.). But all policy decisions in a country must be taken by its people. This principle is sacrosanct. It was violated in Mr. Aiyar's case. This represents erosion or wilful sacrifice of sovereignty.

Dr. Singh calculates that no price is too high to pay for the nuclear deal. On its ratification hinge three things: "normalisation" and legitimisation of India's nuclear arsenal, her energy security, and the India-US "strategic partnership."

These goals are questionable. As this column has often argued, India does not need nuclear weapons for security. No one does. In 1998, Dr. Singh himself expounded on their irrelevance to security and on the dangers of an arms race.

Nuclear power is a dubious route to energy security. It bristles with safety problems, including hazards from wastes that remain radioactive for thousands of years. More centralised power generation cannot be the answer to global warming.

Under the US-India strategic alliance, New Delhi will contribute to making the world a worse place. Globally, the US is not a force for good. It has had a profoundly destabilising influence, and made war, military conflict, and social strife endemic. The globe's -- and India's -- interest lies in a multi-polar world and a weaker US. That's the way to expand the space for independent development, global economic balance, and security.

Dr. Singh has played his cards badly in dealing with Washington as if India-US relations were a one-way street.

He has compounded the blunder made in taking Petroleum away from Mr. Aiyar by handing it over to Mr. Deora. Mr. Deora is known for his proximity to business houses, and to Washington. He's a provincial politician and fund-collector who cannot be accused of a vision. Under him, India can bid goodbye to the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline.

Washington has never treated India more contemptuously than now. The US ambassador in New Delhi increasingly resembles his counterpart in Islamabad, where he is frankly called "The Viceroy." This is happening not because India is weaker today than under Nehru or Indira Gandhi, but because its rulers have decided to be Washington's supplicants.

Dr. Manmohan Singh stands warned. He has no mandate to do what he's doing. The people elected the UPA in protest against the NDA's communal, neo-liberal, and pro-US policies. Dr. Singh's party, with its 145 Lok Sabha seats, shouldn't behave as if it had 345. He must cease and desist -- or face withdrawal of support.

Praful Bidwai is an eminent Indian columnist.