Friday 13 July 2012

BUZZ!

Pranab Mukherjee is all set to move to raisina hills in few days. The UPA candidate for presidential election, his mild and sociable nature has earned him a lot of friends. And these friends have shown their amity at the accurate time. Prime time and dailies are full of his praise. He is such an esteemed figure in the political arena today that he is capable of dividing NDA and also the left. Such is his range of friends. It is clear that BJP backed P.A.Sangma would not win this election because he does not have such wide variety of friends, infact his own party NCP is not backing him. So numerically Mr.Mukherjee is far ahead of Mr.Sangma. But one question arises here in my mind is that there are very few people who care to count his limitations. Is it because of his amicable nature or is it because people don’t want to pay attention to his negatives now that he has reached the retiring age from active politics. Few days back when Mr.Sangma called him as the “failed finance minister”, he retorted back saying the level of presidential elections should not be taken to the ordinary level. But Mr.Sangma surely left some food for thought. Was Pranab Mukherjee really a “failed finance minister”.
 There is a mood of undisguised glee in the Congress as the Sensex and rupee rebounded barely a day after Pranab Mukherjee filed his papers for presidential election. But then it simply wants to duck the question: Is Pranab’s exit as finance minister good riddance for the Congress? Or for that matter what is his legacy as finance minister?
We all saw how economy revived after the PM took over.
 It is pointed that GAAR which allowed a relook into the tax affairs of any person or assessee even after 18 years was seen as something that contributed to the negative sentiment against Mr.Mukherjee. Similarly, the retrospective taxation proposal for Vodafone also added to this.

There is no mistaking the difference between the approaches of the two leaders when it comes to the handling of the economy. “Mr. Pranab Mukherjee was Mr. Pranab Mukherjee,” said a senior Congress leader while emphasizing that the then finance minister was very much his own man who would simply refuse to accept any advice from anyone, and be it the prime minister. If this statement given by the congress leader is to be taken true then we can surely hope that there will be no rubber-stamp president this time. Let’s just wait for the day when he finally shifts to raisina hills.