Aditi Phadnis: On a low note

How will a UPA caught in inter-party intrigues survive its full term?

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has been made to stoop. But has he conquered?

This is the question impartial observers in the Congress were asking themselves as Mukherjee read out his “statement” in the 2G spectrum issue: that it was officers who believed, not he, that if then finance Minister P Chidambaram had acted, the telecom scam might have been averted. It was officers who said so in the note that was sent to the Prime Minister’s Office at the insistence of officers in the Prime Minister’s Office (emphasis added).

That it was the responsibility of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) whose minister took the decision in the first place and is now enjoying the hospitality of the government of India; and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who saw the sign that spelt danger but did not – could not – act, was lost in the noise.

So are the knives back in their sheaths because Mukherjee has explained? And to understand is to forgive?

Not ‘ardly!

How the master political manager of the government got into such a conundrum in the first place is a mystery. After all, this is the man who got the Patents (Amendment) Bill through Parliament at a time when the government was critically dependent on Left parties (he even got Jyoti Basu to promise the support of the Left Front on a piece of legislation they were pathologically opposed to). And the government survived — and passed the Bill!

This is the man who prevailed on civil society activists to get the Lok Pal Bill hammered into shape so that it could pass muster before a Standing Committee. This is the man who prevented a voice vote on the Bill by the simple stratagem of standing up and claiming that the house was unanimously calling for Anna Hazare to call off his fast unto death so no vote was required.

This was the man who ensured the Indo-US civil nuclear deal was clinched.

He gave his all to the government led by Singh, saving its bacon at every stage. And this man was reduced to the ignominy of hearing a Cabinet colleague “accept” his statement (it is apologies that are accepted and not statements, surely?)

The world now knows the full story: that Pranab Kumar Mukherjee, master strategician for the Manmohan Singh-led government begged to be relieved of his charge as finance minister when he met Singh in New York earlier this month. So alarmed was Congress President Sonia Gandhi at this turn of events that she called Mukherjee hours after he had landed in Delhi and soothed ruffled feathers.

What appears to have happened in the 2G spectrum note that was accessed through the RTI was probably this: officials in PMO and the Cabinet Secretariat who have their own axe to grind with certain members of the PM’s Council of Ministers saw an opportunity when a note was prepared “harmonising” different things that had been said by different people on the 2G spectrum issue. A version of the note was prepared by finance ministry officials taking inputs from various sources — the ministry of telecom, law and so on.

Finance ministry officials were, therefore, taken aback when they sent their note to the PMO but kept getting it back with searching queries about Chidambaram’s role.

The reply was that the then finance minister had recommended auctions for the future, but had, in a secret note to the PM on 15 January 2008 suggested that already-allocated spectrum be treated as a “closed chapter”.

It was not Mukherjee saying this. It was an official of the finance ministry after being badgered by the PMO.

The implications were that if this recommendation had not been made and spectrum allocation halted, the people of India would not have seen bribes go into the pockets of greedy corporate houses.

Chidambaram had solid legal grounds for making this recommendation so he was never worried, not for a minute. But PMO officials saw this as a way of getting even with him.

The man who was caught in the middle was Mukherjee.

Everyone knows there is no love lost between Chidambaram and Mukherjee. But both are intelligent leaders because they know their limits and limitations.

Equally strong is the antipathy between Singh and Mukherjee. For Mukherjee, Singh represents all the opportunities he has missed.

But Mukherjee has little patience with minions. And minions won the day as the United Progressive Alliance government’s face was covered with yolk.

If this is the way the government of India is going to be run – through sneaks and snakes and palace intrigue – how will it last its full term?