Once again, this canard was supported by a small cluster of Congress self-seekers, its new class of Commie-come-latelys who made a great leap of faith — and conspiracy — across the ideological pond, believing that that is what their leader wished. And that the surest way of earning brownie points with her was to undermine her own handpicked Prime Minister.

Maybe the new generation of Left leaders also bought that delusion. They went to Sonia routinely to complain about this Prime Minister’s policies and style and probably mistook her silences and non-committal nods for agreement with them. This hubris was strengthened by the way the Congress party’s political managers botched the choice of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates. Once again, the Left got the impression they could walk all over the Congress at will. And can you really blame them for drawing their obvious conclusion as several — at least four of the more senior members of this Cabinet — prostrated themselves before the commissars with job applications for President and Vice-president. Egos got even more bloated as the Left rejected one candidate after another in public, stating their reasons more explicitly than any BCCI selection committee chairman does while dropping a player. One was too old and unfit for the job, they said, another went to Sai Baba, a third wore his faith on his sleeve — literally. Hamstrung by the arithmetic of this Parliament, the Congress took all this insult and public humiliation. It even kept quiet when the Left’s handpicked Vice President attached its foreign policy, the Prime Minister’s own article of faith, and even voted for him. The Left obviously deluded itself into believing the worm will never turn.

... contd.