New Delhi:
If the dinner party at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence on Tuesday night was about who's who in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), then Mulayam Singh Yadav being on stage as the PM presented his government's report card and then being seated at Congress president Sonia Gandhi's table for dinner was a telling statement.
Mr Yadav's Samajwadi Party is not an official member of the UPA. But in recent times he has bailed the government out of several tight spots giving it issue-based support when its own allies like Mamata Banerjee have left it in the lurch. Ms Banerjee was conspicuous by her absence on the occasion, which marked the completion of the UPA's three years in this term. She sent representatives and nothing in the way of a face-saving excuse for not attending.
Ms Banerjee's Trinamool Congress is the largest UPA constituent after the Congress. For some months now there has been intense speculation on whether the Congress, fed up with Mamata Banerjee's constant arm-twisting on the sheer dint of the crucial 19 MPs she adds to the government's numbers, will manage to get the Samajwadi Party with its 22 MPs to officially join the UPA and offset the Trinamool's shaky support.
So far, Mulayam Singh Yadav has said he has no inclination to join the UPA. But with presidential elections round the corner, his party's growing closeness to the Congress is of much significance. Mr Yadav has said he will not join the AIADMK's J Jayalalithaa and BJD's Naveen Patnaik in supporting NCP leader PA Sangma for President.
After dinner, the Congress' Salman Khursheed said Mr Yadav's presence was a "positive indication." But he also sought to play down Mamata Banerjee's absence saying, "Well all the party leaders of Trinamool Congress were present, Mr Mukul Roy came late in the day, after many people left, obliviously he was pre-occupied because he had gone to the site of the train crash but he came and he seemed in a very good mood...they were represented on stage as well."
The Congress leader wondered why BSP chief Mayawati had not attended. "Behen Mayawati wasn't present nor any of her MPs. I am not absolutely sure what the reason would be, I am sure they were invited." Earlier in the day, Mayawati said she had received the invitation, but added, with a smile, that she had been too busy to even read it.
UPA ally the DMK's M Karunanidhi did not attend the dinner either, pleading ill health; his representative and the party's senior leader TR Baalu had a place at Mrs Gandhi's table. Also seated at that table were Rahul Gandhi, Omar Abdullah of the National Conference, senior Congressman Karan Singh, the Trinamool's Saugata Roy and RJD chief Lalu Yadav.
At the PM's table sat senior Congress leaders and Union Ministers Pranab Mukherjee and P Chidambaram, Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan, Ajit Singh of the Rashtriya Lok Dal and NCP's Sharad Pawar.
Asked if he would spare Mr Mukherjee, seated next to him, for President, the PM refused comment.
Before dinner, the host presented his government's report card for the last year; he admitted the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), completing its third year of rule in term, could have done better, but also said that, "let no one doubt we have done much." And he listed his government's achievements.
Tough economic decisions, he said, were necessary and pointed out that despite the bleak international scenario, the Indian economy grew by about 7 percent. Mentioning the contentious Lokpal Bill, which has now been delayed further, the PM said, "We know there is public frustration and anger on the issue of corruption. I wish to assure our people that we are working sincerely to address this issue through both legislative and administrative measures."
(Read: PM's full speech)Next to him on stage Sonia Gandhi said, in Hindi, "We know elections are just two years away but people will vote for us not on promises but performance...We will not let an aggressive and often irresponsible opposition undermine our achievements."
Mrs Gandhi's remarks came on a day when the Bharatiya Janata Party had said that the UPA government could fall anytime given the constant coalition troubles that it seemed to be battling.
(Read: Govt will fall anytime, says BJP)A key Congress leader, who didn't wish to be named, told NDTV that after eight years in government, one couldn't expect everything to be in stars-and-stripes. He said that he didn't see any "policy paralysis" or a crisis in "perception management". He emphasised that that the party would, in the days to come, project a younger leadership with a vision before the Lok Sabha elections in 2014.
Dinner notwithstanding, the government has little to celebrate. It is grappling with runaway prices, a plunging rupee and a growth slowdown. It is under constant attack from the opposition which has accused it of a lack of leadership and policy paralysis. It has been afforded the opportunity to make that last accusation largely because of allies like Mamata Banerjee who has brandished her numbers in the coalition time and again to scuttle important policy decisions and key economic legislations like Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail.
Those coalition compulsions have made it a tough year for the Congress-led UPA, which had a far smoother run in its first term, despite the uneasy partnership and eventual fallout with the Left parties. In that term, the Manmohan Singh government had pushed decisions regardless of pressures.