The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Pasting it here for reference.
In his latest book, “The Coalition Years”, in the section titled, “Morale of the Armed Forces”, Shri Pranab Mukherjee attempts to explain to us some of the things he has done as Defense Minister to boost the morale of the Armed forces – “It is the nation’s duty to make provisions that enable troops, especially those in the lower ranks, to lead a decent post-life retirement”.
And the first example he cites towards this – “With this in mind, I increased the pension of ex-servicemen up to the rank of havaldar by Rs. 400 to 500 per month.” The second example he cites is a recommendation to the Sixth Pay commission and the third example he cites is the increase in compensation to families of soldiers killed in battle (And curiously doesn’t give any number). And there ends the section titled “Morale of the Armed Forces”!
Pranab Mukherjee’s book is replete with many such interesting topics, but disappoints with short paragraphs with just a couple of examples cited. “Modernization of Forces” was the title of another section. Naturally, one would become very keen to read the detailed views of a former defense minister. A mere one and a half page is dedicated to this section, and half of that space is to describe the problem (which by the way persists!). After more brief sections on budgetary allocations, a substantial amount of space has been dedicated to discuss the defense framework agreement with the US.
“Dealing with scams: Coffingate” was the last section in the chapter pertaining to his stay in the Defence ministry. We all need to recollect the humiliation that the Congress party led by Sonia Gandhi, heaped on Defense Minister George Fernandes in Parliament in 1999-2004. In fact, the ruckus that the party created in disturbing the Parliament was unprecedented at that point of time. And so naturally when the party came to power, they wanted to investigate and more importantly indict George Fernandes. An affidavit submitted by MoD when Pranab Mukherjee was at the helm, gave George Fernandes a clean chit! Pranab Mukherkjee tells us that he hasn’t seen the affidavit (how convenient) but has decided to take responsibility for it though! A mere two paragraphs, for an issue that cost the nation so much time!
We are also very familiar with how politically unstable the years of 1996 to 1999 were. We saw three governments come and go, until the 1999 elections gave a clear majority to the NDA coalition. We are also familiar with the fact that the Congress party played a major role in destabilizing two United Front governments. 2 ½ pages have been dedicated to tell us about how the Deve Gowda government was bought down. 2 pages to tell us about why the Gujral government was bought down! The only new thing I learnt was that the decision to submit withdrawal of support to Deve Gowda was taken by a small group and the entire CWC was not even involved.
Three pages to explain how Sonia Gandhi too charge of the Congress party. In fact, 2 ½ to explain the dissatisfaction in the party with Sitaram Kesri’s leadership, and a ½ page to tell how the CWC continued its meeting even after Kesri said the meeting was over.
Few pages were also dedicated to the years Congress was in the opposition from 1999-2004. The following assessment gives a great insight into the disruptive thinking of Sonia Gandhi – “We (Sonia and him) had differences on the way we should function as the Opposition party in both the houses. While she and the Congress members in the Lok Sabha took the obstructionist path, (Manmohan) Singh and I held a differing view. We felt that conciliation and engagement would work better. Finally, she said, you manage your way in the Rajya Sabha and I will manage my way in the Lok Sabha”. The thinking in 1999 and the thinking in 2014 didn’t seem to have changed much. Somehow Sonia Gandhi continues to believe that obstructions and disruptions are the only way ahead. Little wonder that she couldn’t even control Congress members disrupting the Parliament in 2009 to 2014 timeframe!
However, Pranab Mukherjee has documented well his stint at the External Affairs ministry, including the Indo-US Nuclear agreement. He has discussed many facets of engagement he has had to have with many countries as part of this role. He was also in that position when the Mumbai attacks happened on 26th November, and therefore was in charge of putting out India’s message to the outside world.
His insight into the CWC meeting after 26/11 is quite revealing – “During this meeting, P. Chidambaram was stridently vocal against Shivraj Patil and advised a change of Home Minister. I tried to bring the sentiment down a bit by saying that we should not blame an individual; we all have our weakness”.
Shivraj Patil, by many counts, was the worst Home Minister our country has ever had (and hopefully will ever have). That Pranab Mukherjee thought it prudent that Shivraj Patil should still continue after so many terror attacks in the country comes across as very disappointing. He also reveals that Sonia Gandhi wanted him to take over the Home Ministry, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh felt that a change in the External Affairs ministry also, at this juncture was more dangerous.
Substantial space has been dedicated to explaining the Indo-US Nuclear agreement; the political fallout of the agreement, which finally led to UPA seeking the confidence of Lok Sabha. These portions make very good academic reading. But guess what incident didn’t even get a passing reference? The hordes of cash that was bought into the Lok Sabha and the ensuing furore. It was as if this event hadn’t even occurred!
Lastly, no mention of Pranab Mukherjee is complete without mentioning his role as the head of almost every single GoM that Manmohan Singh has constituted. Whenever a crisis erupted, the first step that Manmohan Singh took was to appoint a Group of Ministers (GoM). When that became passe, he appointed Empowered Group of Ministers. Almost every single one of them was headed by Pranab Mukherjee. Pranab Mukherjee tells us that he was the chairman of more than 95 GoMs and EGoMs! He also tells us that “In fact, some people joked that this was a government of GoMs and EGoMs”.
Pranab Mukherjee ends his book recounting the events that led to his election as the President of India, including a small paragraph where he mentions that he did get a vague impression that Sonia Gandhi might be keen to make Manmohan Singh as the President! Though it is understandable that the Pranab Mukherjee had to cover a lot of events in the 1996 to 2012 time frame, it was a tad disappointing to see cursory references to some key events in this period. His elephantine memory is quite visible in his vivid recounting of events and statistics.
The book has also highlighted that Sonia Gandhi was firmly at the helm of affairs – both Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee held the fort for the government. Much has also been discussed about what would have happened if Pranab was made the Prime Minister, instead of Manmohan Singh. In my opinion, nothing much would have been different! We would have seen perhaps a similar style of governance, given how much grip Sonia Gandhi had on the party. I believe the academic debate on who would have been a better PM is a futile one, after reading the book.
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