In the beginning, there were occasional skirmishes. All that was required to douse the fire was some friendly intervention by well-meaning intermediaries. But of late, these encounters have turned into daily slugfests between the left parties, who have 61 Lok Sabha MPs, and the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government. In the four months the two sides have tangoed, there has been no shortage of friction-first over the presence of tainted ministers in the Cabinet, then the hike in petrol and diesel prices and later over the hike in FDI caps in the insurance, telecom and aviation sectors.

PICTURE SPEAK

PEACE MEET: (From left) Sonia, Basu, Surjeet and Manmohan

It was to avoid such frequent face-offs, which sometimes threatened to paralyse the Government, that the left parties and the UPA decided to set up a separate co-ordination committee in August. But all hopes of a lasting truce vanished in mid-September when the Left once again went for the Government's jugular-this time over the appointment of multi-lateral agencies like the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and consultancy firm McKinsey in the Planning Commission's consultative groups for mid-term appraisal of the 10th Five-Year Plan. Two members of the commission, Left-leaning Abhijit Sen and B.N. Yugandhar, a former IAS officer, resented these appointments, prompting left leaders like Abani Roy and Prakash Karat to shoot off protest letters to the prime minister.

In his defence, Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia clarified that the foreign consultants were associated with groups that "deal with areas in which these agencies are actively involved in supporting Central or state government projects". He also argued that the commission would not "do justice to the mid-term appraisal if it relied solely on the work of civil servants commenting on the work of other civil servants in the ministries".

As the issue threatened to blow up into a full-fledged battle, Manmohan played firefighter. On the eve of his 10-day visit to Britain and the US, Manmohan and Congress President Sonia Gandhi invited CPI(M) veterans Jyoti Basu and Harkishen Singh Surjeet for a peace lunch. But that did nothing to douse the controversy. Ahluwalia was firm on retaining his foreign consultants. The chasm between the Congress and the Marxists widened. "We strongly object to formally inducting these agencies into our decision-making structures. As members, they can summon files from state and Central governments," argues CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury.

But the Marxists are known to preach even when they practise the contrary. In recent years, grey-suited gentlemen from the ADB, McKinsey and PricewaterhouseCoopers have been a familiar sight at Writer's Building in Kolkata, advising the West Bengal Government on everything from restructuring state PSUs to cleaning up the mess in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Kerala's last Marxist government, led by the late E.K. Nayanar, invited the ADB to help the state evolve and implement badly needed reforms in the power and transport sectors.

LEFT FUMING

"We are not blindly supporting them. We will not accept any mistakes." BUDDHADEB BHATTACHARJEE, WEST BENGAL CHIEF MINISTER "Though they are supposed to coordinate with us, they always ignore us." JYOTI BASU, FORMER WEST BENGAL CM AND CPI(M) LEADER "The CPI(M) will advocate alternative policies based on its own programme." PRAKASH KARAT, CPI(M) POLITBURO MEMBER "The Government should listen to our views instead of just ignoring us." D. RAJA, NATIONAL SECRETARY, CPI

It is not as if the Government's trauma would end if it concedes the Left's demand for removal of the experts from the Planning Commission. Far from it. The Left has already lined up another elaborate list of issues for Manmohan and his colleagues to agonise over at the next meeting of the Left-UPA coordination panel immediately after the prime minister returns from the US. For example, the Left feels that some ministries are not doing enough to combat the BJP. "There is no whole-hearted attempt at 'detoxification' in ministries like information and broadcasting, law and home," says Karat. They are particularly miffed at the I&B Ministry's failure to act against the continued publication of the International Herald Tribune, the American newspaper which mysteriously started printing in India a few months ago.

According to Yechury, there are two aspects to the Left's dialogue with the Government. One relates to the proposals on which there are disagreements between the two sides-the cut in EPF interest rate, FDI in sensitive sectors, airport privatisation and foreign consultants in the Planning Commission. "These are the Left's reactions to the Government's proposals which it has made public. But this is not our core agenda, which remains the implementation of the pro-people ideas in the CMP," says Yechury.

It is this tone that vexes both Congress workers and leaders. Just four months into power, the pressures of coalition politics are already visible. Once muted, protests against the Left constantly browbeating the Congress are now getting louder. Says Jairam Ramesh, Congress MP: "The Left should stop pretending it has a monopoly over social conscience." A lot of Congressmen would agree.

INTERVIEW | SITARAM YECHURY

"We are not here to teach Congress" CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury spoke to Special Correspondent Lakshmi Iyer. Excerpts. Q. By supporting the Government from outside and also opposing its policies aren't you straddling two worlds? A. We react publicly to public pronouncements of the Government in the interest of the nation. Our agenda is to get the pro-people ideas in the CMP implemented. Q. There is no money to foot the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS). How will you meet your CMP commitment? A. The EGS is the Congress' contribution to the CMP. They can't backtrack, they have to find the money. Q. The Congress does not agree with your ideas on combating communal forces. A. We are not educating the Congress on how to combat the BJP. We are just asking the Government to be more alert and aggressive. Q. Is the FDI cap in the insurance sector crucial to the Left? A. It is crucial to the country. Insurance is the largest contributor to the planned development fund. It is naive to say we are opposing FDI because of our trade unions. Q. What about FDI in telecom? A. The UPA Government cannot afford the stigma of framing a telecom policy to favour a particular company, and that too needlessly.

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