NEW DELHI, July 18: When H D Deve Gowda was the Prime Minister and contentious issues cropped up between the Left and him, the rajguru of his government, Harkishen Singh Surjeet, swung into action to defuse them. His politburo colleague Sitaram Yechury threatened to bring cut motions in the budgetary allocation to censure Finance Minister P Chidambaram earlier this year, but Surjeet overruled him publicly.

When the Almatti row broke out, he suggested that Jyoti Basu head the committee to go into the matter. Hardly anything has come of the exercise but the crisis blew over.

When the appointment of Romesh Bhandari threatened to overwhelm the United Front (UF), it was Surjeet who counselled Gowda on the one hand to promise the removal of the UP governor at a later date and his Left colleagues not to precipitate the issue to give the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) political mileage on the other hand.

Today he has Bhandari eating out of his hands and the Uttar Pradesh governor, no political chick himself, called on him and told him that he was an old leftist.

But with Inder Kumar Gujral,it is a different story. When Left leaders raise ideological issues like corruption or Laloo Yadav's resignation to put the government on the mat, Surjeet ups the ante. The day Laloo split the Janata Dal (JD), Yechury said on TV that the Communist Party (Marxist) (CPM) would have to talk to others and evolve its stand. The next day Surjeet returned from abroad and the party's position hardened.

The Left is rightly exercised about corruption. A charge-sheeted chief minister should resign. But Surjeet is silent about the Ayurveda scam. He has already given Mulayam Singh Yadav, an ally, a clean chit.

Surjeet came to Gowda's rescue at every turn but seems to be gunning for Gujral he tried his best to stop the installation of Gujral as Prime Minister,and put forward the name of Mulayam Singh Yadav.

It was only when Jyoti Basu was told about all the skeletons that could come tumbling from the Samajwadi Party (SP) closet if Mulayam were to be installed on the coveted gaddi that the Left decided to plump for Gujral. Surjeet was away in Moscow at the time.

Gujral's problems with Surjeet stem essentially from the fact that he has not allowed the consummate practitioner of realpolitik that Surjeet is, to continue to be the ``power behind the throne'' that he had been with Gujral's predecessor.

Taking the bull by the horns last weekend, Gujral is believed to have told the CPM general secretary that he did not like back-seat driving. He also met Deve Gowda, and did some plainspeakingthat he was going to be a one term Prime Minister and that the breakup of the UF and the JD would affect the government.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.