Pranab Mukherjee had outlasted all his political contemporaries, excepting L.K. Avani, and in that sense he belonged to a bygone age. But that he had lasted for half a century in the nation’s political scene is in itself a riddle. Throughout these fifty years, he had dwelled the rarified stratosphere of high politics of legendary prime ministers and presidents. He must have had qualities which allowed him to remain in that position. But then, destiny so prevailed that he never could reach that final step. Could it be that some qualities worked against his attaining his coveted station.

In some ways possibly his career parallels that of Lord Curzon, the greatest of Governor Generals of India, who failed to get what everyone expected him to grace, the position of prime minister of Great Britain when that country was great.

IN his long career, Pranab Mukherjee had been everything that a politician could have asked for: president of India, defence minister, finance minister, foreign minister, commerce and industry minister; but not prime minister. The party he had served so loyally denied him that final pleasure.

The denial started fairly early in the career, when he would have been younger than fifty. He was the trusted lieutenant of Indira Gandhi who had given him every importance which had created the impression of he being the second in order of preference in the government of the day. He had possibly come to think he was the chosen successor of Indira Gandhi. Only the end of Indira Gandhi came to suddenly and possibly at a wrong time when her son, Rajiv Gandhi had already begun his political career.

He is said to have staked his claim right on that flight from Calcutta to Delhi that day. But of course Congress party did not rally behind him. It rallied behind Rajiv Gandhi. Under the sharp eye of Indira Gandhi he could not cultivate a support base in the party and there were no Pranab loyalists. That defined the rest of his life.

Hypothetically, even if Rajiv Gandhi wasn’t there politically and he had managed to become prime minister, could be have held on to that. There is reason to believe he could not have. There were inherent limitations in his personality that restricted his chances at the very top. IN the game of party-based democracy he had serious limitations for not being a man having popular appeal. Nor could be inspire a coterie which could have supported him at a critical political moment.

There were hardly any followers of Pranab Mukherjee at any point of his long career. A by-product of that he had never won a single election, excepting once with the help of another Congressman, as is widely known. In Bengal, where he hailed from, he was considered virtually an outsider. He could not lead the party in the state at any point of time and was mostly resented.

Pranab Mukherjee was no great orator, even remotely comparable to the likes of Atal Behari Vajpayee. If anything, his speeches, and they were innumerable, were tedious with plenty of facts and figures bunged in. At he end of it, you would not be any the more wiser other than being somewhat fatigued.

He was no visionary. Despite his long stint at the apogee of power structure, he had never introduced any new path-breaking ideas or reforms or moves. His budgets were nothing but ordinary. His time in other ministries did not leave the imprint of a new direction anywhere. His name is not associated with a single bold move, so to say.

He had faithfully echoed the sentiments of other Congressmen. In address at the headquarters of the RSS, in the presence of its chief Mohan Baghwat, he reiterated the importance of the values of secularism, plurality and extensively quoted Nehru, Gandhi and all others. He had remained scrupulously politically correct at RSS headquarters. It would have been surprising if he had departed from that script.

Many had pointed out his daring to go to Nagpur and bearding the lion in his den. He did nothing of the kind. No one expected that he would reflect the RSS sentiments and line. But he chose to visit Nagpur to take revenge for his deprivations at the hands of Congress throughout his long career.

The ultimate prize —prime ministership— had eluded his grasp time and again when he was standing by. He had ended up receiving the consolation prize with the highest office of the land. Even there, fate so played the trick that his presidency ended with no semifinal role for the institutional head. When it was hoped that in 2014, there would be a fractured mandate, which should give the president the key role to play, his anathema BJP landed with a crushing majority.

Why was he ignored for the top job again and again?

There were raving stories and insider gossips about what had happened in the hours after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. He has ever since denied all gossips. His version was that despite the union cabinet secretary saying so, in view of his seniority in government hierarchy, he had asked Rajiv Gandhi to take over as prime minister. If true, that showed either his lack of courage and grasp over the party apparatus.

There would have been however something amiss. Rajiv Gandhi dropped him from government altogether and he had to go into political exile for a long time. He would in those days sit in a solitary room without any visitors from the party or elsewhere at Jawahar Bhavan opposite Shastri Bhavan.

Then again, when Rajiv Gandhi was suddenly gone with one fell sweep, it was P.V. Narasimha Rao, wrenched out from retirement, to ascend to the top spot, while Pranab Mukherjee’s claim was not even considered. There were no demands from the party or any followers for Pranab Mukherjee to get the top job, even when there was recognition of his credentials. Sonia Gandhi did not show any level of comfort with him. Why?

Then in forming his government, P.V. Narasimha Rao, did not naturally descend upon Pranab Mukherjee to take over as finance minister in the midst of the worst economic crisis India was facing. Before that, Pranab Mukherjee have had several stints as finance minster and was generally recognised as an astute person.

Narasimha Rao had to look for some professional economist. The former Andhra Pradesh chief minister, and now prime minister, had sought out former Reserve Bank governor, I. G. Patel, to take over as finance minister and lead the country out of the economic morass.

IG had refused to move from his Gujarat home, where he had recently settled down and himself had referred Dr Manmohan Singh. To Narasimha Rao. Though Rao and Pranab Mukherjee were long time political colleagues, the former put his bet on Manmohan Singh than Pranab Mukherjee. Again, why?

Narasimha Rao was subsequently resented by his party. The party had expected a rubber stamp of a prime minster. Instead, they got a sphinx. He was able to keep the Gandhi-Nehru clan furthest from government as long as he was in power.

For his all achievements, Rao was no popular vote-catcher and he had tripped on that calculation. He was ousted and a non-entity Sitaram Kesri was pushed into Congress presidentship. In no time, Kesri was simply knocked down and in came Sonia Gandhi as the formal head of Congress.

The party returned to power at the centre with popular vote and demand was for Sonia Gandhi to become prime minister. Sonia was not willing as she had a call from her conscience.

The crucial time was again in. As a prime minister was to be chosen, other than from the clan, Pranab Mukherjee could have been the sure choice. But no. His claim was again ignored and even Narasimha Rao’s finance minister was more acceptable as the prime minster. Maybe, for Sonia, it was once beaten twice shy.

That must have been the last straw. Manmohan Singh was the technocrat. He had no political experience of managing the disparate show of this unmanageable country at the helm. He was no popular person. He was a non-entity, so to say, compared with Pranab Mukherjee. Dr Singh had beyond doubt demonstrated his incompetence in managing the show as the top man. Even then, Pranab was not trusted.

It would have rankled with him excruciatingly. Here was a prime minister who had once served as RBI governor or at the North Block as a senior official when Pranab Mukherjee was the finance minister in all his glory. Pranab-babu had to serve under his former official.

The frustration with his position had often spilled over during the UPA Two regime. He would often enough show off his bad temper. He had often changes of portfolio. In between Chidambaram had become finance minister. But his last budget was a siren song. His budget proposal for retrospective taxation had attracted an avalanche of criticisms and opposition. The noise was so loud that it had to be withdrawn. He left North Block shortly thereafter for Rashtrapati Bhavan to begin the end of the political drama.

It is riddle that he had survived for so long and scaled such heights of public office. In the end, it was a lonely world for Pranab Mukherjee. He was a lonely man in that raucous party which he had served for half a century and believed he belonged to that melee.

As a matter of fact he was an outsider who had failed to evoke confidence with comfort. (IPA Service)