Pranab as President:

Aug 07/2013: Without doubt, by virtue not only of his position but also of his experience and stature, Pranab Mukherjee, although physically a very short man of no noticeable features, is the tallest leader around us today, and the tallest politician in recent years until the time he was elevated to the presidential chair as head of  nation. Mukherjee completed his one year in the exalted office of  President Thursday. Some say he might be spreading his wings around Raisina Hill and beyond, and that there is palpable comfort across the broad spectrum of the public that the nation is in safer hands -- and also that saner judgment will prevail in times of need, especially at a time when the nation is facing many odds both from forces within and antagonistic elements and entities from without. Sadly though, no smell of a better and active mind at work at that ornamental post is yet visible!

One might easily have disagreed with Mukherjee on the political positions he took, or the policies that he pursued in various capacities as a top governmental functionary, and especially as finance minister for several terms, off and on from the time Indira Gandhi brought him upfront in the early Eighties. Mukherjee, somehow, also marked the beginning of the end of the 'great Indian politician' era. He became the first of the lot that Indira picked up that never had the quality to win elections. From the beginning of his career till 2004, when he wrangled a short lived alliance between Congress and the Left (which ruled West Bengal at that time), he was always a Rajya Sabha person getting elected from different states. Once the alliance was in place that year, he dropped into the Lok Sabha, for the first time ever, with active support from the Marxists. Pranab was the perfect kind of person the Indira-Sanjay mindset wanted to encourage within the Congress at that time. A man without a constituency, no mass following or support base in the home state and a complete loser at every end was what was sought after to create space for an iconic buffoon like Sanjay. Pranab fit the bill like mittens! (Do NOT even think of trying to draw parallels of Rahul Gandhi and a Sikh Rajya Sabha member elected from Assam such as the present day Prime Minister Manmohan Singh). When, after Indira was murdered, Pranab committed the first major faux-pas of his politically 'astute' carrer by staking claim to the PM post, he became a object of distrust by Rajiv's cronies. He however managed to retain his Cabinet post in Finance and lorded over that ministry when one of the first ever major scams to hit this nation, the US 64 embezzlement, wiped out whole life savings of millions of small and medium investors in a government sponsored scheme of Unit Trust of India. It is another story that this scam laid the foundations of Dhirubhai Ambani's Reliance empire and that many in the corridors of power in New Delhi at that time whispered that Pranab was the driving force behind the Reliance success story.

That he is ultimately holding the highest office of the country is probably one way controversial people are honored by us Indians.

In fact, his presence in Raisina Hill is not reassuring for the fact that here is a wily politician who has seen it all from close quarters, guiding the nation’s destiny through thick and thin, not just as a senior minister but also as one whose counsel mattered with the top leadership of  the Congress party and bringing the country to situations as perilous as we see it in now. Which was probably why, when Pranab’s name came up for presidentship, many raised their eyebrows. Feelings were that it was his mix of administrative and political experience that so ably backed the UPA dispensation, destroyed the nation's economy and at times helped clear parliamentary deadlock would cripple democracy forever with both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi being totally opportunistic in politics playing along happily.

No doubt, the UPA dispensation has carried on ably in the past one year without Mukherjee directly getting involved in the day-to-day affairs of governance, other than, most likely, keeping his eyes and ears open as to the goings on.  Some of the troubles that the UPA is currently going through have a direct link to the decision-making processes both at the party and the government levels. For instance, the recent months saw the UPA losing many of its allies including the DMK and the Trinamool Congress, to both of which, and to the rest of the UPA allies as well, Mukherjee was both the interlocutor and indirect link to the top leadership until the time he became President. While serving his Party for his own interest, he had not hesitated to go meet Baba Ramdev at Delhi airport with folded hands.

In his own native West Bengal, the politics there being what it is, Mukherjee could not ever claim to find his feet; yet, he ably made up that shortfall with his eminent presence in Delhi for the past so many decades.

In the year that was, Mukherjee has not had the brilliance people thought him to possess. His presence in the presidential chair was felt prominently when he cleared long-pending files of a sensitive nature – one relating to the mercy petitions of Afzal Guru; and also of Ajmal Kasab. Today, as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces, Mukherjee stands to be judged. Whether he was always a 'crony' Congressman dabbling in petty politics or a true Indian ready to lead his country against the bullying of the Chinese is to be seen. Here is wishing Mukherjee all the best.