Given the go bye

Away from the public eye, there were moments of heated debate between the Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) over the last two days when the latter threatened to withdraw support to the UPA. But there were emotional moments as well. On Monday morning, with the DMK ministers scheduled to tender their resignations, Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam came to meet his senior colleague Pranab Mukherjee in his office. When Palanimanickam said “Goodbye, Sir” Mukherjee came around the table and hugged his Tamilian colleague. For the next two days, it was Mukherjee who played a crucial role in retaining the DMK in the UPA fold.