Fickle Finger of a Sickle-wielding Surjeet

It's an irony. The Left or the Communist Parties of India have about 60 seats in the Lok Sabha, just one ninth of its strength.

And just because it supports the coalition in power, it wants to dictate what direction India takes. It even wants to control which world leader the government should host, and where our leader go.

Foreign policy is one of the areas where the country has stood together, brainstormed together and decided together. We have a tradition of ruling parties consulting even the Opposition on international issues. Vajpayee used to involve bitter foe Sonia, her foriegn origin notwithstanding, in foreign matters. So does Manmohan.

The Left are party to the government, if not in, for god's sake. We always feared the Left would like to have its say in how the economy is run, but Surjeet wants his sticky fingers in every pie.

And the country's foreign policy is getting fingered.