On the day the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Secretary, Prakash Karat, first declared his intention to withdraw support for the UPA government, the Kerala government, which is ruled by his party, announced power cuts in the state. But for three small thermal projects launched by Congress governments, Kerala is totally dependent on hydel power for decades. In spite of heavy monsoons, Kerala always had a serious power deficit which results in power restrictions at least a quarter every year. Despite ruling the state many times over, the Leftists have failed to redress this perennial problem. Rather, its trade union has the distinction of destroying power generators during a major strike. No wonder, they kept little belief on what nuclear power could have done to India's energy sector.

Leftists in Kerala have a history of blocking major development projects in the state - the Greenfield airport at Kochi, the Expressway and the Smart City, to name a few. Interestingly, the CPM is no longer as Luddite as it used to be in the 1970s and 80s, when it branded everything from computers to industrial machinery as imperialistic technologies that cut down employment. Rather, the party is now seemingly serving some corporate interests while shunning out other 'monopolists'. There are numerous instances when it had treated private investment in West Bengal and Kerala through different prisms.

Surprisingly, the party is also known to adopt projects which it had opposed tooth and nail while being in the opposition. Streets in Kerala were blood soaked for months together by the CPM agitation against the Smart City project initiated by the Congress regime. After VS Achuthanandan took over, this was the high profile project showcased as Left Democratic Front's (LDF) commitment to 'industrial development'. Its present electricity minister, S Sharma, was at the forefront of opposing the Nedumbassary airport project when the Karunakaran government was acquiring land. Sharma felt no remorse to lead the reception committee for the airport's inauguration a few years later when the LDF was in power. The Communist Party of India's (CPI) Kerala Secretary, Veliyam Bhargavan had threatened massive agitations against the expressway project while in the opposition, only to be now declared by the LDF's industries minister that the project is on track.

With such political theatrics being their trademark, the Leftists' stand on the nuclear deal is of no surprise. Despite being explained forthright that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) exemption are key to India's nuclear trade with all countries including Russia, France or even China, the Leftists have given scant respect to the country's massive energy requirements, by blocking the deal with an imperialism bogey. Though they had lot to nail the government on the 123 Agreement and the Hyde Act, their opposition to IAEA safeguards defy logic. The IAEA is a nuclear safety verification and inspection agency and currently have no fuel supply functions. The new agreement is nothing but a rephrased version of INFCIRC-66 type safeguard arrangement which is already applied for six Indian reactors, the only addition being the preamble which incorporates India's requirements and concerns, post the 123 agreement.

But such facts barely matter to Karat and Co., for whom 'national interest' is nothing but a delusion created by 'pseudo-nationalists'. For, here is a man who had dared to openly declare, thanks to the democratic space in the country, that he would not allow the US to use India to 'encircle' China. This was one of those moments when Karat exposed his actual intentions, but was let free by the government and the media, despite making a statement which could have been seditious if made in 1962.

If this is Karat's actual worry, what then could be his stand on the Sino-Indian border dispute? In recent times, neither Karat nor other Leftist leaders have uttered a word when China denied visa to an IAS officer from Arunachal Pradesh claming him to be its citizen. For that matter, there is no official record on what the Leftists think about China's claim over Sikkim or even on China-Pakistan nuclear and missile proliferation. No such ambivalence prevailed when the CPM took up the case of Chinese companies when the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) raised concerns over Chinese companies investing in strategic sectors in the country. The same CPM leader who went to prime minister arguing for 'rights' of Chinese companies also reportedly argued for employing Chinese engineers in some construction projects, thus hitting at a few hundred jobs for Indians.

If these are 'fictions' in India's contemporary political history, the Leftist arguments on the nuclear debate are no less creative. After the May 1998 nuclear tests, CPM was at the forefront of a campaign by Leftists intellectuals against India's efforts to 'trigger a nuclear arms race' in the region. Then defence minister, George Fernandes, was castigated by the Leftists for saying that the tests were warranted by the Chinese threat. Cut to 2005: after the nuclear deal was announced, the Leftists went pillar to post claiming that the 123 agreement would impinge upon India's 'nuclear weapons programme'. When this ideological anomaly was pointed out, the Leftists corrected it as 'India's indigenous nuclear programme', to imply that they meant civilian nuclear energy.

At the height of the debate on the deal, the Left parties argued that India's indigenous nuclear programme could sufficiently cater to the country's energy needs. On the day they withdrew support to the UPA government, a lady CPM leader told a news channel that nuclear energy is too costly and that India should invest in 'wind power'. The nation would have been thankful to her had she explained how wind power was to resolve the power crisis in Kerala, if not the whole country.

While the BJP has played a cheap political game by opposing an agreement which could been fructified by the NDA government had it endured the 2004 polls, the capability of the CPM, with formidable political presence in just three states, to disrupt national policy making has ominous consequences for the nation's progress. With contempt for all instruments of free market economy, including the stock market, the party has been a negative influence in national politics since the mid-1990s. In fact, its power brokering and political hypocrisy in cobbling up namesake 'secular' coalitions had forced a leading commentator to term the then CPM 'king maker', Harkishen Singh Surjeet as a 'living insult to Karl Marx'. Prakash Karat could easily contend for such sobriquets in his attempts to become the new king maker by shuttling between party offices of regional patriarchs to satiate his ego, which was hurt by the Prime Minister.

Had the Prime Minister shown this courage in August 2007, immediately after the release of the 123 Agreement, the Leftist Frankenstein monster would not have had grown to this proportion to push the country towards instability. Had the Prime Minister then prevailed over his allies that 'national interest reigns supreme', even Karat would not have dared to then force a mid-term election. With inflation now threatening to boomerang on the UPA, any politician would only be keen to exploit the rising anti-incumbency factor.

The CPM might be calculating new political alignments like the BSP+Left+UNPA to get back to power again. To know whether this is possible, it is vital to know how the Leftists reached their pinnacle in 2004. While CPM and allies have always managed to hit 30 plus seats in West Bengal, its jackpot in 2004 came from Kerala where the LDF managed to get 19 out of 20 Lok Sabha seats. The Leftists have rarely managed to get more than ten Lok Sabha seats even at the height of Left waves in the state. A dirty factional feud had routed the Congress in Kerala in 2004 and gave around 19 seats on a platter to the Leftists which catapulted their tally to 60 seats.

Will this feat be repeated in the next elections? The factional virus that hit the Congress in 2004 is now the bane for the Left in Kerala where two Marxist patriarchs are vying for domination. Similarly, post-Nandigram, things have not been that pink for the Left in West Bengal, where the first setbacks came in the local body polls. The next elections would therefore be crucial for the country to decide whether they have to face the consequences of making king makers out of comrades.

The author is a New Delhi based policy analyst.