The ‘PM’ Factor

With Manmohan Singh pushed to the wall and the Congress scared of facing mid-term polls, Left and UPA allies might pitch for the man who has repeatedly missed the top job by a whisker: Pranab Mukherjee

Hardnews Bureau Delhi

Communist Party of India's General Secretary, AB Bardhan, is a simple man who presumably hates keeping secrets. Quite expectedly, he is the first person to share with the media what transpires in many of the “secret” closed-door meetings between the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and the Left parties. Bardhan again cannot hold his confidence when it comes to revealing the trajectory of the Left's strategy.

During the two month long political crisis engendered by the resolve of the Left parties to withdraw support from the UPA government if it deigned to operationalise the civilian nuclear deal with the United States of America, the voluble Bardhan came out with a gem: Congress should do a Tony Blair on Manmohan Singh. His submission was that as the British Labour Party had eased out Blair as he was getting quite unpopular due to his close proximity to US President George W Bush and the Iraq occupation, Singh, too, should be replaced by the Congress president.

At the time when Bardhan made these suggestions, there were not many takers for this point of view in the Congress as Prime Minister Singh was flying high. In an exclusive media briefing to a Kolkata-based daily he had revealed his pique over the manner in which the Left was stopping the government from going ahead with the deal and he dared them to pull the plug from his government. His defiance was exemplified by his statement in case if the Left wanted to withdraw: “So be it” drew support from a section of the party that was clueless about the nuclear deal as well as the trenchant response of the communists. Their reason to support the prime minister was that the government cannot really run like this and it was time that the communists were dumped. “How long can we carry on like this? It is better that we go back to the people and seek a fresh mandate,” said a young MP from UP.

The government seemed to be heading inexorably towards a meltdown when Sonia Gandhi cut short her visit to South Africa and conveyed the message to the Left allies that the government would talk. Her intervention opened a window for negotiations with the Left, but it also contributed in devaluing the importance of the prime minister. The Congress president's mediation may not be a vote of no confidence in the prime minister, but it revealed a crack in the thinking within the Congress party and the government.

Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee was drafted to negotiate with the Left and try to make them see reason on the nuclear deal. His long years of working with the Left in West Bengal, his articulation and his ability to read and interpret the fine print of these dense and complex deals such as the civilian nuclear one were the reasons why he was fielded to take on the questions from the communists.

Discussions with the Left leaders like the recalcitrant CPM General Secretary, Prakash Karat, sensed the mood that the Congress was running scared and did not want an early election. Congress was blinking. In other words, Singh's bluster could not be backed by the party. “We are merely saying what the majority of the Congressmen want — no mid-term elections,” revealed a Congress leader.