Left, Congress MPs face difficulties playing allies

Congress MPs from West Bengal were shaken, rather than stirred, when West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya called on their party president and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairman Sonia Gandhi for the first time after her appointment.

The reason for their discomfiture is the fact that Bhattacharya's party, the CPI (M), and   the Congress are bitter rivals in the state. But, their alliance at the Centre has made it difficult for them to go all out while attacking each other's policies. 

It has also been leading to piquant situations.

During the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, for example, when Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh was attacked by the BJP for "rewriting" history books, it was the Left parties that sprang to his defence. Finally, former HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi led a BJP walkout because Left MPs, like Nilotpal Basu, kept interrupting him.

Again, at a meeting of their coordination committee on Monday, the Left decided to play down its opposition to the hike in foreign direct investment (FDI) caps in telecom, insurance and civil aviation.

It restricted itself to "public campaigns to mobilise support to protect these sectors from further foreign control". It also sought a "consultative mechanism" from the UPA on the implementation of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP).

It's a difficult transition for the Congress too.

Priyaranjan Dasmunshi, Congress MP in the Lok Sabha, explained the difficulties.

He said he had been raising the issue of appointments made by Vishva Bharati University Vice-Chancellor Dilip Sinha, a Left Front appointee.

Sinha, he said, recruited one of his own students as a lecturer in mathematics, and attested her certificate, which said she had received 90 per cent marks, when in fact she had only scored 40 per cent.

"When this lady (the lecturer) went to teach, the students asked her questions that she could not answer. She then went to a professor, got a list of problems written out for her, and copied this out word by word for the benefit of her students. And the Left Front government says qualifications are secondary when it comes to appointments. I have criticised them harshly. Do you think I will lose my job?"

Dasmunshi asked a group of reporters. Dasmunshi likened his and his party's dilemma to the two best known football teams in Bengal, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal.

"When they clash in the state, they fight to kill each other. But when they are part of the national football team, they forget all that and play for the country," he explained.

He admitted that Finance Minister P Chidamabaram might have to roll back some Budget provisions to accommodate the Left parties, without which it might become difficult to get clauses in the Budget passed in the Lower House.