Now Manmohan will be President?

With Mulayam and Mamata throwing their Presidential candidates, decks are ‘almost’ cleared for Pranab Mukherjee to become the Prime Minister of India. To me these names do not surprise and these names would not have come without the understanding with Congress President. I have used ‘almost’ because of two things, one is that it is the field of politics and, secondly it is India where any ‘jugad’ can take place. From the day when the name of Pranab Mukherjee started doing the rounds for Presidential candidate, I firmly believe that it is sheer politics and I had many reasons to believe that.

After covering politics for long I believe and had witnessed that none of the candidates whose names are thrown into media at first place have succeeded in any such election. The names are thrown by the rivals or by the candidate itself to test water for bigger bargain.

No government can afford to have an active President in the era of coalition politics and only ‘ yes man’ suits for any coalition government and even the naïve cannot say or believe that Pranab, carrying huge knowledge and experience of governance,  could be a ‘yes man’ or passive President. Secondly why at all Pranab Da would like to become President when he is de-facto Prime Minister.

Above all how could Mukesh Ambani afford to loose his most trusted men in the government? So the way the things are shaping up two things appear to be certain, one is that Manmohan Singh would soon be President of India and would be spending the retirement life at Rashtrapati Bhawan and second is that most likely Pranab or any other trusted men of the Corporate Houses would be running the UPA-2 government for next two years.

 The one factor that cannot be ignored is how the Western powers particularly the US takes the things. Believe me public posturing (what Didi is saying in public is different from what she wants and could be possibility that she is batting for Pranab Da for the post of PM)  would be totally different from the hard reality and not Sonia or Advani would call the shots but the actual ruler ‘Corporate Houses’ would call the shots.