In a brief speech while moving the motion of confidence in his Council of Ministers in the Lok Sabha, Singh recalled the contributions of Basu and Surjeet and called them as "architects of our coalition government.
The Prime Minister said "If we are here after a tenure of four years, the credit for this should go to all the leaders of the UPA, to the leadership of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, to the wise and visionary leadership of Jyoti Basu, Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Dr Karunanidhi."
"They were all the architects of our coalition government. It is their wisdom and sagacity that has helped me and our government function for these four years," he added.
Given the bitterness that has marked relations between the UPA and the Left in the recent weeks, the import of the fact that the prime minister did not mention Karat's name was not lost.
Singh's remarks were seen as a veiled dig at the Left parties which withdrew support to his government over the nuclear deal.