Don't look we are changing!

Rashtrapati Bhavan is changing slowly, very slowly as President Mukherjee wants to cut down on protocol, formality, security restrictions, etc

Ahead of Pranab Mukherjee’s swearing in as the President of India, it so happened late one night – the best time to speak to him – that an inquisitive reporter asked him what he was going to wear when he took oath.

Mukherjee thought, but only for a moment. A gala-bandh is too formal, he said about the uniquely high-necked Indian take on the Western jacket. The rest of India calls it a bandh-gala; but, Bengal calls it gala-bandh. And, a Dhuti-Panjabi would not be appropriate for such an occasion, he said, nixing every Bengali’s secret wish. It will have to be a sherwani, he said, and the matter was closed.

 

His son, Abhijit, says he did not gift his father the sherwani the senior Mukherjee wore at not just his swearing in but also later, for the At-Home hosted at Rashtrapati Bhavan. “I did not buy clothes for my father. It was all done through the official process. A protocol officer accompanied my wife to purchase, conforming with the definition of official dress, the sherwani.”

“It was bought in Delhi,” he said.

It surely wasn’t the first time Mukherjee wore a sherwani: He almost always took a sherwani along when he visited the Gulf countries. While travelling to Europe via Iran (in 2005-06) as defence minister, he was seen in a sherwani.

Mukherjee has always been a fastidious dresser. Can you recall any photograph of him in kurta payjama, or a bush shirt? It was always the “gala-bandh” or the traditional Bengali dhuti. And, now, the sherwani.

So, the clothes have changed. What else has changed?

Rashtrapati Bhavan is changing – slowly, very slowly. As the President, Mukherjee wants to cut down on protocol, formality, security restrictions, etc. He will give no vacuous, meaningless speeches. This was reflected in his Raksha Bandhan message to women (roughly translated to mean “you’re the best, you need no protection from anybody”) and his meeting with the Olympic contingent; and, of course, his first Independence Day eve speech.

He met journalists in an off-the-record interaction. The headline was plaintive: “I’m missing you people already.” He called a minister to make a friendly complaint: “You’re the only one who hasn’t been in to see me. Come over for lunch tomorrow.” He’s a little excited; and, a little lonely, too.

September is going to be a busy month for the President. The heads of state of Burundi and Australia and the King of Spain are coming to see him. He hasn’t yet decided which country will his first foreign visit be to. He is travelling to Tamil Nadu for the 150th anniversary of the Madras High Court and to Tirupati; and, to West Bengal, as the chief guest at the convocation of IIT-Kharagpur. In Kolkata, he would be given a civic reception.

But, Mukherjee is yet to decide what his imprimatur on the Presidency will be. In his blog, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani suggested it could be electoral reform. The President has yet to react.