So, what do the buccaneers of the Left do now? Just when they were savouring the completion of their conquest of both Houses of Parliament, the Prime Minister has spoilt their party by defying them to do what they want because he won’t concede any more space on the nuclear (read, larger foreign and strategic policy) issue.

This is the all-conquering comrades’ moment of truth. For more than three years now, they have got used to the Congress shivering in submission the moment they opened their mouths. Never in the history of coalition politics has the government of the day allowed itself to be treated with so much disdain — and in public. Even when the Congress supported minority governments from outside, its leaders never used, for their barbs, the kind of language that even the minor megaphone of the Left constituents use about this one. Nor did they interfere in the government’s day-to-day functioning the way the Left has done. The exercise of veto, for them, had become a daily ritual rather than exception. Not only that, they undermined so thoroughly what was, after all, their own government that even more than be just a vital partner with veto rights, they became some kind of an authority on advance rulings. On most issues on foreign and economic policy, it seemed as if the Congress ministers had to seek the Left’s clearance in advance before opening their mouths. Legislation supported by a wide majority in this Parliament has been waiting in deep-freeze just because the Left, with the leveraged power of 60 plus, would veto the wish of 360.

... contd.