Manmohan looks Left

The politician in Manmohan Singh has had a swift change of heart about the Left. Two weeks ago, when the Congress released its 2009 election manifesto, he slammed the Marxists as "regressive" and lumped them with the BJP for their "negative mindset".

On Friday, he sang a different tune during an interaction with women journalists. He said he had the "highest regard" for the Marxists and "greatly regretted" the breakup over the nuclear deal.

Politicians are entitled to make 180º turns if the situation so warrants. Manmohan Singh knows there are two obstacles between him and a second term as prime minister. One is his party's electoral performance. The other is the Left, whose chief strategist, Prakash Karat, never tires of declaring that he will do everything he can to stop the Congress (and the BJP) from forming the next government.

Optimists in the Congress hope that the party will get enough seats (with other allies) to ride to power without the help of the Left. But realists know that more likely than not, they will have to turn to the Left once again for support. The realists have obviously prevailed on Manmohan Singh and got him to soften his anti-Left rhetoric.

Women journos were unsparing in their questioning. One even asked Manmohan Singh whether he would step aside if the Left insisted that the Congress change its PM nominee as a condition for support. With barely a flicker of emotion, Manmohan Singh said he was confident that the Congress will do well.

But when the question was flung at him again a little later, he cracked slightly. "We'll cross the bridge when we come to it," he said and claimed that the Left was "quite happy" with him except on one issue, the nuclear deal.

It must be galling for Manmohan Singh to know that his second term in office rests in the hands of his bete noir, Prakash Karat. Unlike LK Advani, who readily trades barbs with Manmohan Singh, Prakash Karat has refused to be drawn into a personal exchange with the PM. But Karat's actions speak louder than Advani's words. For instance, he politely declined to attend Singh's farewell dinner for outgoing Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee on April 14. He also denied permission to Sitaram Yechury to go.

The CPI's AB Bardhan has accepted the invitation, but in deference to the sensitivities around him, he has added a caveat. If he is in Delhi, he will be there, Bardhan has told the PMO.

The message to the Congress is loud and clear. The Left will not sup with its political opponents. With Karat adamant about not taking any of the olive branches Manmohan Singh has been holding out of late, it looks like a post-poll stalemate looms.

TAILPIECE: His opponents in Thiruvanthapuram have tagged former United Nations diplomat and Congress nominee for the seat Shashi Tharoor as an "outsider". But a section of his own party is fuelling the perception too, with backhanded compliments about his language skills. Tharoor has spent the past year doing a crash course in Malayalam in preparation for the election campaign. But according to his detractors, he speaks "sweet Malayalam". Not like our Malayalam, they say. With supporters like these, who needs enemies, right?