new delhi congressleft ties are again delicately poised after prime minister manmohan singh gave the comrades a brush off over their concerns regarding inflation once again a few tough words and messaging through the media has put the upa lead player and a key ally at loggerheadswhile congress leaders debate whether it was necessary to be blunt and gruff when prakash karat a b bardhan and co came calling what is evident is that the meeting left a sour taste all around even the heap of samosas that the pm offered his guests on friday morning was largely untouched as the comrades made a quick exitthis was hardly surprising considering how the exchange went apart from a memorandum on price rise the left had an agenda that it considered politically vital increasing rice allocations for west bengal and kerala with the cost of rice rising demand for pds grain even in apl categories is growing and the left is finding it hard to explain why its clout with the centre is not workingthe pm was quite dismissive he said that procurement was still on and what other states would be asking had to be also considered perhaps a trifle exasperated cpm mp sitaram yechury pointed out that allocations for andhra pradesh had been increased the suggestion that a congressruled state might be receiving preferential treatment was not lost on the pm who immediately said the issue should not be politicisedon other matters singh was equally unyielding on cuts in excise and customs duties he said the financial implications of such measures would have to be taken into account he was insistent that the government had already taken steps to contain price rise and the drift of his arguments suggested that the lefts suggestions were either untenable or would not make much of a difference anywayit was somewhat unusual that a fairly routine meeting with the left should have turned confrontationist with the pm indirectly suggesting that better rice procurement in west bengal might even help kerala it was not hard to see what he was getting at but even if the points he raised are valid how would that help running a coalition for another year wonder some of his party mpssources privy to the pms interactions with left leaders say that often the hectoring style adopted by the comrades can be rather offputting mps like cpis gurudas dasgupta have a habit of talking down to the pm cpm stalwart biman bose came across in a similar fashion when he met singh in the first half of the budget session this is apart from a blizzard of requests that pour in for all manner of odd jobs the timing and the issue at hand is worrying congress circles it was not a great idea to adopt a macho posture on price rise the government only came across as being insensitive or even arrogant it was easy to say that inflation was global and that india was better off that many