Active Stocks
Thu Mar 28 2024 15:59:33
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 155.90 2.00%
  1. ICICI Bank share price
  2. 1,095.75 1.08%
  1. HDFC Bank share price
  2. 1,448.20 0.52%
  1. ITC share price
  2. 428.55 0.13%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 277.05 2.21%
Business News/ Politics / News/  Pranab Mukherjee | The No. 2 who came in from the cold
BackBack

Pranab Mukherjee | The No. 2 who came in from the cold

Pranab Mukherjee | The No. 2 who came in from the cold

Wearing many hats: As finance minister, giving the final touches to the 1982-83 budget. Photo:PIBPremium

Wearing many hats: As finance minister, giving the final touches to the 1982-83 budget. Photo:PIB

New Delhi: Having come to be regarded as the perennial No. 2 in the Indian cabinet, Pranab Mukherjee is set to become the nation’s first citizen.

Wearing many hats: As finance minister, giving the final touches to the 1982-83 budget. Photo:PIB

The story goes that on the day prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated—31 October 1984—Mukherjee was accompanying Rajiv Gandhi on a flight back from West Bengal to New Delhi. In a discussion about her potential successor, Mukherjee apparently said the senior-most minister should become caretaker prime minister—a suggestion Rajiv Gandhi’s friends felt showed his own interest in the top executive office.

The rest is history. Rajiv Gandhi became prime minister and kept Mukherjee out of his cabinet. Mukherjee left the Congress party in 1986 and launched his own political outfit, which went nowhere.

Mukherjee remained in oblivion until P.V. Narasimha Rao became prime minister in 1991—after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in the midst of his campaign for re-election following a two-year spell out of power—and rehabilitated the Congress veteran.

Pranab (centre) with Prakash Mehrotra (left) and Gundu Rao (right) at a National Socialist Congress convention in 1987. Photo: Hindustan Times

That didn’t stop his rise to No. 2 in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, as defence minister from 2004 to 2006, minister for external affairs from 2006 to 2009 and finally as minister for finance from 2009 until his resignation on 27 June after he was chosen by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi as the coalition’s candidate for the nation’s highest constitutional office.

Mukherjee was the chief troubleshooter for the Congress party and the UPA. In fact, his exit has created a vexing problem for the government as there is no one senior enough and with the same gravitas to head the many empowered groups of ministers that he did.

With prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. Photo: Hindustan Times

Close aides claim that Mukherjee believed he never really had the full trust of the Prime Minister; and neither Mukherjee nor other senior cabinet ministers such as the late Arjun Singh readily accepted Manmohan Singh’s authority, especially in cabinet meetings, despite Sonia Gandhi’s attempts to make sure the Prime Minister received due respect.

Mukherjee has always been proud of his understanding of Indian politics; Manmohan Singh, with an economist’s background, is perceived to lack political acumen as well as experience.

Although regarded as a heavyweight in the Congress party, Mukherjee has never been a mass leader—he has fought elections to the Lok Sabha only twice (in 2004 and 2009, winning both times, with the support of the Left and later the Trinamool Congress, or TMC) in his 43 years as a parliamentarian.

With defence minister Sharad Pawar, prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and finance minister Manmohan Singh at a Plan panel meeting in 1992. Photo: Hindustan Times

That Mukherjee is an unabashed acolyte of Indira Gandhi is part of Congress folklore; the teacher-turned-journalist-turned-politician even adopted her fiscal conservatism.

The proximity to Indira Gandhi, whose cabinet he joined as a deputy minister for industrial development in 1973, and her younger son Sanjay Gandhi, was also the focus of a part of the report submitted by the J.C. Shah Commission that inquired into excesses committed during her 1975-77 Emergency rule.

In the early 1980s, Mukherjee became finance minister in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet and brought in the first whiff of tax reforms, being rated by Euromoney magazine in 1984 as the world’s best finance minister.

His first stint as finance minister was also notable for the incentives he offered non-resident Indians to invest in India, including one allowing them to buy shares from the secondary market, which triggered one of India’s fiercest takeover battles.

With prime minister Indira Gandhi at a Nabard event in 1982. Photo: Hindustan Times

Both were on the brink of losing control of their companies; Rajiv Gandhi, who was yet to join active politics then, is “believed to have" intervened and bailed out the families, journalist A.K. Bhattacharya wrote in the Business Standard newspaper on 27 June.

Mukherjee is proud of his Congress lineage, but could not contribute much to the party’s growth in West Bengal. Congress leaders critical of Mukherjee rue that he never contributed anything to revive the party in the state where the TMC in 2009 ended the Left Front’s 34-year rule. “Instead, he joined hands with the Left," said one of them.

In his interactions with colleagues and media persons, Mukherjee brought to bear a formidable memory and vast knowledge of parliamentary procedures, party history and the Constitution. He would always cite precedents to express optimism that “the system would find its own solutions" whenever Parliament or party went through crises.

With the opposition, he could be gently persuasive; whenever the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in a belligerent mood, he would remind senior BJP leader L.K. Advani of their long association in parliamentary politics. Mukherjee joined the Rajya Sabha in 1969, a year before Advani. After losing his temper in Parliament, he would be quick to apologize with a sheepish smile.

An avid reader, Mukherjee has profound knowledge about Bengali culture and traditions. At the meeting of the Congress working committee that bid farewell to Mukherjee, who had been a member of the party’s apex decision-making body since 1978, Manmohan Singh recalled “his abiding love for history, the arts and culture, not to mention his weakness for Bengali sweets".

History will be the final judge, but his final stint as a minister hasn’t been enviable for the economic legacy he is leaving behind. Economic growth has slowed, inflation been stubbornly high, borrowing costs have surged and the rupee declined amid a loss of investor confidence; rating agencies have downgraded the outlook on India’s sovereign ratings, citing, among other factors, lack of progress in economic policymaking.

His decisions to introduce general anti-avoidance rules (GAAR) targeting transactions structured in a way to avoid paying tax in India, and a move to tax transactions retrospectively after the government lost its legal battle with Vodafone Group Plc. over its acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd’s Indian telecom assets, spooked investors.

“Introduction of retrospective amendments and GAAR clearly show that he was completely out of touch with reality," said a former bureaucrat who has worked closely with Mukherjee. The former bureaucrat declined to be named. “Such policies did more harm than help India."

Although known for his short temper, Mukherjee has always taken criticism in his stride, arguing that the finance minister’s was a thankless job and there was no shirking harsh decisions.

“Economic policy, as in medical treatment, often requires us to do something, which, in the short run, may be painful, but is good for us in the long run. As Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, had said in Shakespeare’s immortal words: ‘I must be cruel only to be kind,’" he said in last budget speech.

liz.m@livemint.com

Also Read |PA Sangma | A Chair too far?

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Catch all the Politics News and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
More Less
Published: 19 Jul 2012, 01:15 AM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App