A Passing Thought

Exactly a week ago, Mr P Chidambaram presented his extraordinary Budget. It made everyone feel very good. So the response, barring that of Ashok Mitra the communist MP and Mani Shankar Aiyar the former Congress MP from Tamil Nadu, has been overwhelmingly positive.

With a stroke Mr C has regained his reputation as a reformer. He has completely silenced his critics and his stock is riding high. He towers head and shoulders above the rest of his cabinet colleagues, who are seen as a bunch of provincial pygmies.

Only two finance ministers in recent memory have enjoyed such immense popularity V P Singh after he presented his first Budget in 1985 and Manmohan Singh after he presented his first Budget in 1991. Both, as it happens, cut taxes and liberalised.

And both, as it also happens, made their prime ministers uncomfortable with all the adulation they were receiving. The result, in the case of V P Singh, was a lateral transfer to the defence ministry. In the case of Manmohan Singh, in keeping with Narasimha Raos style, the PMO stepped in to claim credit for the good ideas and to slow reforms down.

But V P Singh and Manmohan Singh havent been the only finance ministers who have made their prime ministers fidgety. In 1952, John Mathai opposed the setting up of the Planning Commission and was removed by Jawaharlal Nehru. Morarji Desai, with his staunch opposition to bank nationalisation, was forced to quit as finance minister in 1969.

Arguably, the immediate context in each case was different. Thus, while Mathai did not pose a political challenge of any kind whatsoever, his ideology did not suit Nehru. Morarji Desai, on the other hand, never accepted Indira Gandhi as his leader and made it quite plain by opposing her agenda.

V P Singh always nursed prime ministerial ambitions and used his police powers as finance minister for a populist purpose. He went after powerful business houses one of whom then cleverly succeeded in duping Rajiv Gandhi into believing that Singh was actually going after him while pretending that he was investigating his film star friend. Retribution was swift and sure.

Manmohan Singh was not a professional politician and so did not worry Narasimha Rao beyond the simple concern that he was getting all the credit for the reforms. But he did not nurse any political ambitions and was left alone.

But of late that has changed. Until Sitaram Kesri pipped him to the post, he too had begun dreaming of being leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party, the stepping stone to prime ministership.

The same sort of thing, I am told, happens at the state government level. There also good finance ministers manage to irritate the chief ministers who act to clip their wings. Equally importantly, it doesnt matter to which party they belong.

Two of the above four finance ministers were professional politicians and saw the prime minister taking over their portfolios. Thus, Indira Gandhi took over from Morarji Desai and Rajiv took over from V P Singh.

Equally interestingly, both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv did so because they hadnt fully established their control. Both thought the finance ministry was a good weapon to wield in the political arena.

I know what you are thinking by now. But remember, I havent said it. Why, maybe I havent even thought it.