Today's Chanakya

New Delhi, June 17, 2010: Its 10.40 AM and I am  on the airport tarmac with an air force officer waiting for India's finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to arrive. I am supposed to accompany the man who heads more ministerial groups than he can remember, on a trip to diamond city Surat and Gujarat's capital Ahmedabad.
His car screeches to a halt. Petroleum minister Murli Deora has driven down with him, perhaps to brief him on the need to raise petrol prices to save state run oil firms from bankruptcy. A move which their cabinet colleague from Bengal, Mamata Banerjee successfully stalled last week.
Pranab starts walking briskly towards a waiting Embraer jet. I just about manage to catch up with the man who is 75 years old. "Your direct tax code changes are being talked about." The finance minister on Tuesday released a set of changes to a planned direct tax code which saves pension savings from being taxed.
"Yes, people seem to have liked it ... lets see how it goes in Parliament," Pranab says smiling slightly. The man who troubleshoots on almost all issues for the government and the Congress party seems a little tired, despite his surprisingly young gait.
His aides say he works most nights, poring over files. But still manages a grueling 12-hour schedule the next day perked up by about 10 to a dozen cups of black tea and coffee at intervals.
Once inside the aircraft, sure enough Pranab orders hot beverage for all and tries to catch up on his newspaper reading. He has been a newspaper addict since the age of 10.
Surat arrives almost before breakfast is over. We have to rush to catch up with Pranab, He has finished with tarmac greetings, bouquet exchanges and pleasantries and is in a waiting sports utility vehicle, even before his aides can get into their cars.
His hosts are his companion in his vehicle. The idea, someone explains to me, is that in case of a terror attack others who can rally around and get help should not be in the same vehicle!
The cavalcade swings onto a highway and winds through rich sugarcane fields  into a modern conference center. A huge congregation of diamond traders and textile mill owners are waiting for the man who they hope will help give them tax breathers to recoup losses they ran up in the last two years of global downturn.
Eight out of ten diamonds cut and polished in the world are worked upon in the port town of Surat. But the problem is that with western economies spinning into a nightmarish recession over the last two years, diamonds, celebrated in songs and films as a `woman's best friend' have found fewer buyers in the last two years.
Textile and garment mills in Surat too have had to lay off tens of thousands of workers as global orders plummeted. Businessmen say the city which boasts of the highest annual household income in the country - Rs 4.57 lakh - lost out some Rs 3,600 crore of business in 2009 out of the Rs 12,000 crore of garments business it does in a normal year.
The finance minister talks of growth, promises help, assuages hurt by calling Surat a victim of the global downturn and asks entrepreneurs not to lose heart but work to create more wealth and jobs. "We want more growth and more jobs" is met with thunderous applause.
The man who has represented Gujarat for six years in the upper house during the 1980s, has a surprisingly strong fan following here, despite not speaking any Gujarati. Businessmen and women are nodding in agreement with his appraisal. A textile trader who is sitting next to me whispers "He is really running the country, you know after all the economy is the country ... after Manmohan (Singh) he is the best man for this job (Finance Minister)."
A short flight takes us to Ahmedabad. A meeting is slated with Narendra Modi, Gujarat's chief minister, in the city's circuit house. Pranab wants Modi to agree to a nation-wide Goods and Services Tax which will replace the current system of VAT taxes. And the BJP leader has been playing hardball.
Pranab's motorcade is treated like a visiting head of state's. Streets have been cleared of traffic. Saluting policemen dot the route. Even pedestrians aren't allowed on the road.
A beaming Modi comes out to greet Pranab at the circuit house: "instead of a bouquet, I would like to offer my `buk' (heart) to you." Pranab smiles cautiously. After all this is a political rival with whom his party will have to contend in the  years ahead.
Pranab promisses he will take care of any losses states run up in implementing GST, a simpler taxation model which businessmen feel will reduce taxes and the government believes will boost revenues for states. But Modi, a seasoned politician, is ambivalent and wants a test pilot project before agreeing. The Gujarat chief minister is the key to a cabal of BJP chief ministers running Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Himachal, coming on board.
Modi uses the example of a successful bus corridor in Ahmedabad compared to an unpopular bus corridor in Congress ruled Delhi. "I accept new things after testing them out." North Block believes the BJP ruled states will ultimately agree but will try stalling as long as long as possible.
"You are not just the finance minister ... you have a lot of influence in all ministries," Modi says as the meeting is coming to an end, presenting a list which seeks arrears in sales tax rebate, money for a notional `loss' on crude royalty because the royalty formula was changed, lower price for natural gas and more gas among other things.
A Pradesh (State) Congress Committee delegation walks in as Modi strides out towards waiting flashlights and TV cameras. Congressmen want to complain to Pranab about Modi's verbal attacks on the Congress and the central government.
Its 6 O'clock. But the day is not yet over for the finance minister. The last job of the day is to unveil a bust of Third century BC Indian master-statesman Chanakya, at the local income tax office. Its a lovely piece of sculpture in black stone. As Pranab, who is known to have studied Chanakya's treatise on statecraft `Arthshastra' and quote him in budget speeches, pulls the veil of the bust, a young officer whispers to another "It's this century's Chanakya paying homage to an earlier one."