Flash back: A star-studded media event at 7 Race Course Road, the prime minister's residence. The Congress and its allies are there to release the ruling alliance's Common Minimum Programme (CMP). The CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury faces a most awkward but pertinent question. How can the Left dictate terms while remaining outside the government, he is asked. Dodging the entire issue of exercising power without accountability, the comrade does the smartest thing to make the innuendo redundant. He points to Congress President Sonia Gandhi who is seated next to him on the dais and says, "Even she is out of the government. Why aren't you asking her the same question?" Well said, though by the wrong person.

PICTURE SPEAK

SO FAR NOT SO GOOD: Sonia And Manmohan

This happened one year ago.

Today, it is a trifle ironic that most of Sonia's coalition problems stem from the Left. As the Congress celebrates the first year of its return to power after nearly a decade, it is also the anniversary of its first ever coalition government at the Centre. And though a beaming Sonia has told the media that "given that this is our first experience of a coalition government, we have not done too badly", the Left, as usual, disagrees.

The Left's assessment of the ruling alliance falls way short of the self-congratulatory 6/10 given by the prime minister. CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat highlights, instead, the unfinished agenda. While "barely any pro-poor legislation was passed by the Government during the year", it is "obsessed with FDI", he says.

Such issues were raised, of course, during the UPA's Coordination Committee meet on May 18, attended by all 13 partners of the UPA along with the four Left parties. While Karat attacked the Government for its delay in bringing the Employment Guarantee Act (Sonia claims that the delay is at the parliamentary standing committee level), the CPI's A.B. Bardhan criticised the decision to renew arms supply to Nepal. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, with court cases in the fodder scam weighing heavily on him, chose, instead, to repeat his allegations about the attack on him during a recent visit to Gujarat. He also asked for a CBI enquiry into six major cases of Gujarat communal violence. The Left supported him on the latter, asking Home Minister Shivraj Patil not to "give a bureaucratic answer but political direction". So keen was the Congress to placate the Left that as many as 14 Union ministers, along with the prime minister, made detailed presentations about the Government's achievements. After the meeting, Congress General Secretary Ambika Soni issued a statement that the meeting expressed "overall satisfaction" with the implementation of the CMP. Karat said later, "It is not our statement, it is their statement." However, he was contradicted by Debabrata Biswas, leader of Forward Bloc: "Naturally, we are party to the statement." Soni too claimed that the statement had been prepared after consulting all present.

SPOILSPORTS

LJP: Congress supported Ram Vilas Paswan during Bihar assembly polls. It is likely to ditch him in favour of an RJD CM. CPI (M): Karat is upset with the UPA for its obsession with FDI and for not delivering on social sector issues. TRS: Chandrashekhar Rao feels let down by Congress on Telangana. Gave up shipping berth for DMK but didn't get another for a long time. DMK: Dayanidhi Maran wants UPA to expedite a desalination plant in Chennai and amend the Hindu Marriage Act (1955). JMM: Shibu Soren's grouse is that PMO took the high moral ground in Jharkhand. Wants a cabinet berth. RJD: Lalu is angry with Congress for not backing his attack on EC. Wants to be bailed out of fodder scam. NCP: Pawar unhappy over sundry Congress MPs' campaign against Praful Patel on Air-India aircraft deal.

So much for the bonhomie. Even during the recently concluded monsoon session of Parliament, with the NDA boycotting the House, it was the Left that played opposition as it attacked the Government on its fiscal policies and the delay in implementing the Women's Reservation Bill. Defending the Congress, Sonia said, "To expect everything to be done in one year is unrealistic. Our CMP is spread over five years."

Last fortnight, Lalu met Manmohan and said glumly, "Hum bilkul alag-thalag pad gaye hain (I have been left all alone)." He is miffed with the Congress for not supporting his attack on the Election Commission, amongst other things. Lalu is still smarting from the betrayal by the Congress in the Bihar assembly elections held earlier this year when it allied with the LJP. Bad loser that he is, Lalu is yet to come to terms with the loss of power. The RJD is engaged in a turf war in Bihar with Governor Buta Singh, a former Congressman.

Lalu's real worry is about the speed with which the CBI is framing charges against him in the fodder scam. Incidentally, some of the Left allies have also raised the issue of tainted ministers. Privately, RJD leaders would say that the Government could have been more "helpful" towards Lalu. In this they are joined by another ally, BSP chief Mayawati, who even raised the matter in the Rajya Sabha. Threatening to withdraw outside support to the UPA, she accused the Congress of manipulating the CBI by targeting her. Minister of Personnel Suresh Pachouri's stand that the CBI is an autonomous body does not hold good with either Lalu or Mayawati. As she later told a Rajya Sabha MP, "How can they explain the clean chit given to Satish Sharma as soon as the Congress came to power?"

With all the allies disgruntled, hope curiously comes from an old foe-Sharad Pawar's NCP. "We have no problems with the Congress," says Civil Aviation Minister and NCP spokesman Praful Patel. Rather, it is the Congress that is wary of the NCP's growing clout in Maharashtra. Electoral dynamics aside, the prime minister has a better equation with Pawar than Lalu and often seeks his help in matters of governance. Even during cabinet meetings, as a Congress minister says, "the prime minister always turns to Pawar and Pranab Mukherjee for the final word on any issue". Still, some Congress strategists are worried about Pawar's popularity with the erstwhile Third Front's leaders.

However, for the record, Sonia says that she does not play favourites with her allies. What can upset this apple cart is the state elections due in 2006, in which the Congress will take on the Left in West Bengal and Kerala. The DMK is now hoping the Congress will help it fight the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. Unhinged by J. Jayalalithaa's sweeping victory in the recent bypolls, the DMK now has a list of projects to be implemented in the state.

For the time being, the UPA coalition of compulsions seems to be working. For Sonia and Manmohan that is as good a reason to celebrate as any.

with Sanjay Kumar Jha in Patna

Index