Doubtless, the Congress president always shows the prime minister all due respect. But power resides at 10 Janpath, not at 7 Race Course Road, and this has ramifications down the line. In particular, there is little synergy between the Congress president’s establishment and the Prime Minister’s Office, better known as PMO.

One final point: idiocy is not a monopoly of any single party. The deplorably communal twist that a Marxist leader, M.K. Pandhe, has given to the nuclear deal for the benefit of Mulayam Singh Yadav has boomeranged on the CPM. Prakash Karat’s damage-limitation attempts have cut no ice. The communists are now being tarred with the communal brush.

The writer is a political commentator

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