A Happy Accident
Former Vice President Hamid Ansari’s autobiography, By Many a Happy Accident: Recollections of a Life (Rupa) is out on the stands now. Apart from its conversational tone that reveals the author’s wide travels and his love of reading, it also throws light on his experiences with various politicians and how he negotiated political Delhi. For instance, he talks about interacting with Narendra Modi as Prime Minister between 2014 and 2017 at a time when Ansari was Vice President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. At the time, NDA had the majority in the Lok Sabha but not the Upper House but somehow Ansari felt that the Lok Sabha majority gave the Modi government a “moral” right in the Rajya Sabha too. He writes about an instance when the PM walked into his office and remarked that “there are expectations of higher responsibilities from you but you are not helping me”. There did exist an undercurrent of political differences between the two and this was highlighted during Ansari’s farewell when the author quotes the PM as commenting, “There may have been some struggle within (all these years) but from now onwards you won’t have to face this dilemma. You will have a feeling of freedom and you will get an opportunity to work, think and talk according to your ideology.” But what I enjoyed the most was when Ansari quotes a conversation between Thomas Jefferson and George Washington to elucidate the difference between the two Houses: Apparently Washington asked Jefferson why he poured his coffee into a saucer. “To cool it” was the answer. This had Washington commenting, “Even so we pour legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it.” Clearly that defines the role of the Rajya Sabha.
The Congress Question
Now that the Congress Working Committee (CWC) has decided to hold elections for the post of President the main question remains, will Rahul Gandhi be contesting himself or will he put up a nominee? One thing is certain, if he puts up a proxy then there may be a move to prop up a candidate against him. Also, the Sharad Pawar option will get a new lease, for the Pawar camp is waiting to see how the elections in West Bengal, Kerala and Assam work out before reviving the question of UPA Chairperson once again. Hence, Rahul needs to figure out sooner rather than later if he is keen on taking back the top job or not.
Budget Expectations
The Finance Minister has marketed this as once in a century budget, while the Prime Minister has said that this budget should be seen as a series of mini budgets that have been announced since the last year; whatever the label, there is a lot of expectation from Budget 2021, coming as it does during the time of Covid. The IMF may have given us the green signal for growth, BJP spokespersons are talking about a V-shaped recovery, but the sentiment on the ground sees it more as a K-shaped recovery (as Montek Singh Ahluwalia also said in an interview to Karan Thapar recently). The sentiment of recovery is certainly not shared equally by all sectors, especially the salaried class. Will the FM, and thereby the PM, offer some succour in the Budget? What about the unorganised sector, which is certainly left out of the growth story since its data is yet to be collated? Well, all eyes on Nirmala Sitharaman’s speech on 1 February.