The government will, in all likelyhood, face one of the most inquisitive first citizens of the country for the next five years.
This was evident on Saturday at a tea party hosted by United Progressive Alliance (UPA)’s Presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee for the journalists covering the finance ministry. Mukherjee is all set to move to the Rashtrapati Bhavan after the July 19 election.
When asked what he thought would consume his time most in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, he said, with the usual emphasis, that the President had to read a lot as all the government Bills, cabinet papers and communiqué from other countries were referred to him.
So, the next finance minister will also have to come to him to explain the nitty-gritty of the Budget for 2013-14, most probably the last one by UPA-II before next Lok Sabha polls, and he will have to face tough questions from you? Mukherjee presented a broad smile in reply to this question which said a lot without saying anything.
Responding to another question that he will have to administer the oath of office of the new finance minister also — without mentioning that Home Minister P Chidambaram was the front-runner for taking over the finance portfolio from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — Mukherjee said in case of an existing Cabinet minister being given the charge of ministry, there would be no requirement for taking oath again. When asked if he read Saturday’s newspapers, especially the news of the prime minister appointing a new committee for drafting the General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) afresh, he replied in the affirmative and said “Yes, I have read the headlines. Obviously, the new panel will take a fresh look at GAAR.”
When told he would have to do the critical job of calling a party to form the government after the next Lok Sabha elections, which will certainly be a difficult one considering the current political scenario, Mukherjee replied with a cryptic question, “How can you say that?”
