REFLECTIONS ON REPUBLIC DAY PARADE DELHI
By force of habit, switched on the TV to watch the Annual Republic Day Parade on Janpath Delhi
As always the smartly turned out armed forces, the para military, the NCC and the well rehearsed dancing and singing by the school children were a treat to watch.
Dismally however one also has to perforce watch our 'netas':
The President, Shri Pranab Mukerjee, in his first year as President of India, took the salute. One could not but reflect that this man owes his position more due to his proximity to ruling dynasty than to any merit.
Shri Pranabda owed his rise in Congress Party to his famed drafting skills: he could, it is said, write an elegant, precise and well versed minutes of meeting. Being a lecturer in West Bengal, his skill with the language ought to have caught the eye of the then Prime Minister, Smt Indira Gandhi. It helped that during this period, the Congress big wigs in the Working Committee, were mostly sycophants, who could not express themselves well, much less write down in elegant prose the proceedings for the record.
Shri Pranabda of course used this skill and the proximity it provided to the powers that be to befriend the high and mighty in Govt, politics and more significantly in the business world, for lobbyists are a powerful force in Luytens Delhi, and can make or mar a political career by the right word to the appropriate person in the power corridors of New Delhi.
After having been in national level politics for decades, Shri Pranabda finally got elected to the Lok Sabha from West Bengal much later, with the tacit help and support of the Left Front.
However Shri Pranabda can be said to be immensely better than his predecessor, Smt Pratibha Patil, whose claim to the Presidency rests on the fact that she became close to Smt Indira Gandhi by frequently cooking a spicy and tasty fish curry.
Informed political circles also speak softly that Shri Pranabda was kicked upstairs as President of India as he had grown too big for his boots: he could have been an obstacle in the rise of the new star of the Congress Party, Shri Rahul Gandhi. So, craftily, Ms Sonia had him removed as Senior Minister in the Government, where he could do and collect favours, and got him elected as President of India, which is a mere ceremonial post.
