Newsmaker: Pranab Mukherjee

Reluctant soldier?

Pranab Mukherjee

Pranab Mukherjee has been an important leader in the Congress party since as long back as 1967 when he was a young rising star in the West Bengal Congress.

Yet, his relative importance in the present UPA government stems from the fact that he is one of the few old style Congressmen whose political career has survived 10 years in the opposition, and who has made an effective transition from being a hegemonistic Congressman to the UPA government's main trouble shooter.

Which brings us to his recent appointment as India's foreign minister. Much has been made of the fact that Mukherjee was reluctant to occupy an office he held under the Narasimha Rao government, or that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's insistence on Mukherjee taking on the job was a way to cut him down to size.

While Mukherjee was reluctant to take on the job as it would seem a demotion, the reasons attributed to the Prime Minister ignore the fact that the PMO has its own problems with the foreign office.

At a time when India is looking to boosting ties with the United States, China and Pakistan, national security advisor (NSA) M K Narayanan's hawkish positions have been creating problems for the Prime Minister.

As has been the trend in the UPA government till now, it was to Mukherjee that the Prime Minister turned. Mukherjee's association with the Gandhi family goes a long way, probably longer than the NSA's who was the intelligence bureau chief in the Rajiv Gandhi government.

His ability to take on and prevail in situations where his views might come into conflict with that of the NSA is therefore undisputed and an important qualification.

The conflict within the UPA coalition over foreign policy had led to several embarrassing moments for the Prime Minister, especially after the Indo-US nuclear deal had been signed. Mukherjee's track record of being the government's pointsman, like with the Patents Bill, was considered important.

Mukherjee's ideologically flexible stance makes him a better choice than Karan Singh, or any other foreign policy expert in the Congress. His stint at the ministry during the initial years of reform and the end of the cold war make him a "new age" foreign policy advocate, something his predecessor Natwar Singh never quite managed despite the Indo-US nuclear deal.

The clues to Tuesday's reshuffle were actually given when Mukherjee was chosen as the Prime Minister's representative at the United Nations General Assembly. This followed his trip to China, and the ease with which he negotiated both visits convinced the Prime Minister that he was the man for the job.

Despite the fact that Mukherjee himself may be unhappy with his current job, since he had been running the defence ministry as his own fiefdom, it is a measure of his importance in this government rather than lack of it that brought him the post.