Pranab Boss Again

Vintage Pranab Mukherjee

In 1974, when a 39-year-old Pranab Mukherjee was appointed minister of state in the key ministry of finance, he met a studious-looking economist who was three years older than him and then the ministry’s chief economic adviser.

Mukherjee and Manmohan Singh worked together on the first tentative revenue reforms in the late ’70s after the former was made junior minister with independent charge of revenue and banking and Singh appointed finance secretary.

In 1982, when Mukherjee came back to North Block as finance minister at the young age of 48, he remembered Singh who had by then shifted to Yojana Bhavan as member-secretary. Mukherjee recommended Singh for the job of Reserve Bank of India governor.

The recommendation from Mukherjee, who counted then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as his mentor, was accepted. Singh got the job.

Decades later, in 2004, Mukherjee joined Prime Minister Singh’s cabinet as minister, first for defence and then for external affairs before eventually returning to his old portfolio of finance in 2009.

From tackling the Telangana crisis to the spectrum scandal, Mukherjee became his party’s man for all seasons — so much so that by 2012, he headed some 25 Groups of Ministers and Empowered Groups of Ministers.

However, by 2012, Singh had probably started getting a little wary of his former boss, who had a different take on some issues. Sources said Singh often felt cramped by Mukherjee.

Mukherjee is now set to depart his North Block office to try and take up residence in the house atop Raisina Hill, giving Singh, widely regarded as the father of India’s reforms programme, a chance to retake his original ministry and try to shape the economy in his own way.

Mukherjee said as much to reporters, who wanted to know how the government would tackle the economic slowdown, after the announcement of his candidature for President.

“The Prime Minister himself is an eminent economist and under his leadership we will overcome this crisis,” Mukherjee said.

India’s Constitution is vaguely worded on the powers of the President, which has often led to tiffs between Prime Ministers and politically driven Presidents (such as the ones between Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajendra Prasad and between Rajiv Gandhi and Zail Singh).

However, many analysts believe that perhaps this very vagueness may lend Mukherjee more powers than usual to solve India’s myriad problems, in working together with Singh.

Becoming President at a time the country is going through a period of crisis could also give Mukherjee more influence than he would have had in an earlier decade. An added advantage is that he could use the prestige of his office to draft Opposition parties’ support.

With the economy in slowdown, he could play a lead role in resolving the deadlock between the government and the Opposition on key pieces of legislation such as the land acquisition, insurance and pension bills, the goods and services tax and the value-added tax.

Usually, the President’s office does not get down to resolving legislative imbroglios. But with the economy in the doldrums and Parliament numbers often proving elusive for the ruling alliance, a pro-active President may well be the answer to the frustrating wait for reforms to unfold.

Constitutional experts say that the rules of business do not preclude the President from acting as an elder statesman.

They cite how the Supreme Court had ruled that the President is not a mere figurehead but a moral authority who may stay in touch with the Prime Minister on matters of national importance and policy.