Cong tickled pink as red, saffron play footsie

The unofficial floor coordination, was evident from the word go as Leader of the Opposition L K Advani deftly gave a backhanded compliment to the Left when he said it was not them but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself who was responsible for the present crisis.

In an irony of sorts, Advani even took up the cause of the Left, accusing the Congress of violating the coalition dharma and breaking the promise made to the Communists, while the comrades returned the favour by maintaining a studied silence on his remarks on secularism and terrorism, otherwise favourite topics for the comrades to whip the BJP with.

It became clear that both the BJP and Left were adhering to the phrase ‘enemy of an enemy is a friend’ as the UPA constituents thoroughly enjoyed the predicament faced by the comrades with leaders like the SP’s Ram Gopal Yadav even asking Left MPs to sit with the BJP members.

Though Left leaders refrained from directly attacking the BJP and instead concentrated on targeting the Government, the CPM’s Mohd Salim did mention that the Left had given support to the UPA to keep communalists at bay, but the ruling coalition was instead promoting soft communalism.

“Soft communalism is not the reply for communalism,” he said. It was because of the UPA Government’s policies that the BJP was winning state after state, he claimed.

Salim’s attack on the Government for using the CBI for political gains and fulfilling the commitment made to US President George Bush drew cheers from the Opposition benches. BJP MPs were seen enjoying the war of words between estranged partners Left and the UPA.

In what could have passed off as a speech by CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, Advani said the Government pushed the nuclear deal with the US though it was not mentioned in the CMP of the UPA and also sought to know why the text of the IAEA safeguards agreement was not made public.

While the Left and BJP spoke in similar tones, Congress MPs left no opportunity to rub it in on the Left leaders that they and the BJP were now on the same side of the nuclear divide despite their professed enmity to each other.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee took a dig at the Left leaders, particularly the CPM’s Muslim MP Hannan Mollah, for saying that they cannot be expected to jump off a train just because the BJP was also in the same compartment.

“Don’t jump. You will be injured. My advice is wait and let the next station come. Get into a train, which has the same destination. There is no harm in reaching a little late,” he said.

The Government’s new-found friend SP turned the heat on the Left saying they cannot absolve themselves of the responsibility of running the Government for the past four years while the RJD’s Devendra Prasad Yadav said the saffron and the red have joined hands.

“You cannot take credit for all the achievements of the Government in the last four years and go scot-free for the faults,” SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav said. He said Advani was “Lal” (red), referring to the BJP leader’s name, and he had joined hands with the “Reds” (the Left) to oppose the Government.