Pranab 'walks' the talk on presidency: Is it a hint to Sonia?

If Pranab Mukherjee’s diary, which he has scrupulously maintained for 40 years, could talk, it would likely have many stories to tell. As a man who has been in politics for close to four decades now, and as someone who is acknowledged as a consummate “politician’s politician”, Pranab-da has borne eyewitness to some of the defining moments in Indian political history. Even today, the man who is universally acknowledged as the “hardest working” minister in the UPA government, also doubles as the Congress’ political pointsman to whom the party turns reflexively in moments of crisis to harness his vast political experience and the goodwill that he generally enjoys across the political spectrum. And in that capacity, Pranab-da is privy to the most intimate details of the backroom power tussles and skulduggery that goes on in the ruling coalition – and is making scrupulous notes in his diary everyday. Perhaps someday they will come out in the form of his memoirs, sufficiently toned down to kept out the most controversial bits. For now, however, Mukherjee’s diary is a closed book, and bears its chronicles in total secrecy. [caption id=“attachment_321070” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Pranab-da is clearly taking measured paces towards the Presidency. AFP”]  [/caption] Yet, Pranab-da himself is, somewhat uncharacteristically, revealing more than he usually does. There’s a buzz in the political air that he will likely be the Congress’ candidate for President, come July. On earlier occasions, Mukherjee went out of his way to discourage media speculation on his prospects, and somewhat abruptly dismissed any attempts to get him to go on record on whether he would even like to be considered a candidate. But on Friday, in an interview to The Economic Times ( here), Pranab-da drops a hint so large about his interest in the Presidency that it would be hard to bury it even in the spacious, well-manicured lawns of Rashtrapati Bhavan. “I love to walk in the morning… all by myself and my thoughts,” Pranab-da told ET. And in the manner of a patient reassuring his cardiologist that he is not neglectful of his prescribed exercise regimen, Mukherjee gave yet more graphic details of his walkabout. Everyday, he does 40 circumambulations of his lawn, whose circumference measures about 90 metres, Pranab confided. That makes it a brisk walk of about 3.5 km. Just when you wonder where he’s going with his perambulatory narrative, Pranab-da drops a tantalising hint. “The President’s House, Rashtrapati Bhavan, has large lawns,” he told his interviewers. “One would not need 40 rounds.” As hints go, it’s about as subtle as a sledgehammer. Pranab-da is clearly taking measured paces towards the Presidency. And somewhat out of character for someone who has been so blasé about it, he is sneakily conveying his interest in the top job. To whom might Pranab’s signal be intended? And why did he feel the need to set off speculation, when he has been so careful to scotch all such speculation in the past? In the absence of a specific context to his perambulatory revelations, we can only surmise from the externalities at play here. But it appears to suggest that Pranab-da either knows or senses that Sonia Gandhi is still not fully committed to his candidacy, and is therefore looking to force her hand with a pre-emptive declaration of interest. Why might that be? For one thing, after the initial burst of chatter around Pranab-da’s eminent qualifications to be President, the Congress has gone completely silent on the subject. Party spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary’s initial response, when Mukherjee’s name came up for discussion in the media, was to dismiss it, saying that the Finance Minister was too politically indispensable for the Congress. And in the absence of a clear signal from the Congress, other names are being bandied about, including by some of the Congress’ allies. Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, for instance, said she didn’t consider Mukherjee to be enough of a “son of the soil” and her party would, therefore, prefer someone like Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar. The Left parties, meanwhile, are getting down to considering a name of their own. In matters like this, the momentum can shift very rapidly. Is Mukherjee looking to inject himself forcefully into the race by channelling his manifest interest in the Presidency? Of course, the real job that Pranab-da wants, though he has been coy about admitting it, is the Prime Ministership. But Sonia Gandhi has repeatedly conveyed her interest in seeing Manmohan Singh complete his term in office. Also, Delhi durbar chatter has it that Sonia Gandhi reckons that Pranab-da won’t be as malleable a Prime Minister as Manmohan Singh has proved to be, and is even borderline distrustful of him. Which is why Pranab-da, who has reconciled himself to the fact that he may never make it as Prime Minister, had begun to believe that he deserved the next best thing: a sinecure in Rashtrapati Bhavan. But now, he perhaps senses that if the discernible political drift is allowed to continue, it may result in some other dark horse edging past him to deny him even the Presidency. His revelations about his morning walk regimen, and his estimation of how it could be more easily accomplished on the lawns of Rashtrapati Bhavan, is about as clear a signal to Sonia Gandhi of his interest in the job - and to force her hand into naming him as the candidate. Pranab-da has launched his own little padayatra, one that will end in the plush lawns of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Does Sonia Gandhi get the message?