Opinion Not aboard

Role Reversal

Before Manmohan Singh was appointed prime minister,Pranab Mukherjee was always considered his senior in the party. After all,it was Mukherjee who as finance minister in 1982 appointed Singh as RBI governor. Mukherjee was in the habit of addressing Singh by his first name while Singh respectfully referred to him as ‘sir.’ After Singh was sworn in as prime minister,the roles were reversed,something Mukherjee found hard to swallow. If Mukherjee is elected President of India,there will be a role reversal once again. Singh,as head of government,will have to defer to Mukherjee as head of state.

No rubber stamp

Given his background,Pranab Mukherjee is unlikely to be a rubber-stamp president. He has spent a lifetime examining papers minutely and it would be uncharacteristic of him to give his assent automatically. Mukherjee,who till recently was heading several GoMs,likes to satisfy himself on every major decision. Some speculate that he could, like presidents R Venkataraman and Zail Singh,demand the minutes of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs before giving his approval to decisions. While the requests of the two former presidents were turned down in the past,Mukherjee is unlikely to be fobbed off easily.

Space for outsider

Omita Paul,the powerful adviser to the finance minister,quit the finance ministry along with her boss Pranab Mukherjee. Paul is likely to be accommodated in Rashtrapati Bhavan,probably as secretary to the President. The proposal has upset the IAS brotherhood which points out that the highly coveted job is a cadre post and can only be filled by a secretary to the government of India who has been empanelled. Paul,a member of the Indian Information Service who left the service to become an Information Commissioner,is not qualified for the post,they feel.

An ‘outsider’ has held the post of secretary to the President even earlier,during President Shankar Dayal Sharma’s tenure. Sharma’s choice was Srinivas Soni,who had resigned from the IAS to take up the post of secretary general of the Rajya Sabha. Then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao refused to clear Soni’s name for the Rashtrapati Bhavan job. The president retaliated by sitting on an important file. Rao got the message and Soni’s name was approved for the post.

Vasan not guilty

There are differences in the Anna Hazare team over the inclusion of Shipping Minister G K Vasan in the list of ‘tainted’ Central ministers named by the India Against Corruption group. Vasan’s name was brought in because lawyer Prashant Bhushan had filed a PIL against the shipping ministry over an alleged scandal. However,the corruption case relates to a period before Vasan joined the ministry. Cho Ramaswamy,in an article in Tuqhlak,has given a clean chit to Vasan,observing that he was blameless since the issue pertained to the period before he became minister. Ramaswamy’s arguments have influenced at least two members of the Hazare team who feel that Vasan’s name should be withdrawn.

Embarrassing position

The HRD ministry has been asked to fast-track a request from IIT-Kharagpur to bestow an honorary doctor of science degree on Pranab Mukherjee at the IIT’s convocation in August. As visitor to all the IITs,the president has to clear all proposed recipients of honorary degrees. However,Pratibha Patil demits office on July 24 and so,approval has to be obtained before that date. If Mukherjee goes on to become President,it would be embarrassing for him to give his permission for granting a degree to himself.