The 275-256 victory of the Congress-led UPA Government is now a stale story. But what stubbornly refuses to become stale is the manner in which the win was allegedly crafted.

In the light of various parties’ decisions, the margin of defeat of the ruling dispensation ought to have been in the vicinity of 16. But the 19-vote victory is stunning by all standards. And thereby hangs a tale, which confuses the core issue as to who is the real winner and who is the actual loser.<...

Plus into minus (+ x - = -) is always equal to minus. In the same way adopting wrong means to achieve right––even a nobler––goal yields negative result. This is what the Left parties have done recently. They have botched up their whole strategy and are now finding themselves standing before a cul-de-sac.

How can the BJP and the Communists become strange bedfellows? In 1975 one of the constituents of the Left, the Communist Party of India (CPI), b...