Coalition politics can be a leveller of sorts that blurs the line between friends and enemies. But with friends like the left, the Congress-led government in New Delhi may not need many enemies. Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s latest remarks make one wonder whether the left and the Congress are more enemies than friends. It is tempting to dismiss the chief minister’s attacks on the Congress, which have come during his campaign for the coming civic elections in Bengal, as typical pollspeak. His party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), would justify it all in the name of the compulsions of regional, as opposed to national, politics. To the party, the Congress is more an enemy’s enemy than a friend whom the former has been forced to support to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party at bay. But all such arguments do not detract from the fact that Mr Manmohan Singh’s government at the Centre depends on the left’s support for its survival. Since the left decided not to join the government, differences between it and the Congress on policy issues were only to be expected. The surprising thing is that Mr Bhattacharjee is taking such pains to harp on them — that too within a month of the United Progressive Alliance starting its tenure. Obviously, the contradictions of the new political equations are too strong to be wished away.

Mr Bhattacharjee’s anti-Congress barbs nail the lie of his party’s support to the government in New Delhi. The more he launches such attacks, the more the people are bound to question the legitimacy of the CPI(M)’s logic behind supporting the UPA government. Such double standards would increasingly expose the CPI(M) to the charge of seeking power without responsibility. It is logical to expect that what Mr Bhattacharjee does in Bengal will be emulated by his comrades in Kerala and Tripura, where the left and the Congress are the main political rivals. It is still too early to say how long the left can manage to play the double game. The compulsion of keeping the BJP and its allies away from power may force it to carry on supporting the Singh government. But there is little doubt that the left’s shifting stands on the Congress will cast a shadow over the government at the Centre. It is not only the stability of the government which will thus come under a cloud; even the credibility of the regime will be increasingly questioned. But then the left has a dubious reputation for spoiling parties.