Old Cong Can’t Do Dadagiri

With Pranab set to become President, Congress is short of a clever manager. Party insiders say new leaders will emerge. But for that the party will have to change its ways     If winning friends and influencing people in the Opposition is easy, it is definitely easier said than done. Lately, in the Congress, Pranab Mukherjee alone has perfected the art of doing it. Maybe the others thought he would be there to parley and parlay, forever. Which is why it should worry the Grand Old Party that he has quit active politics to run for President who, in India, it is said, neither reigns nor rules.      Of course, Mukherjee has little to worry about his eventual entry to the Rashtrapati Bhawan. His party, on the other hand, is anxious about how well it can defuse political crises without him. For, they need someone who keeps channels of communication open with both allies and members of the Opposition, someone who could be as clever as the devil.      Clearly, the imminent act of coping without Mukherjee is making the Congress fidgety. And it is a process exciting to watch. "He had the God-given talent, willingness to learn," says his long-time colleague Mohsina Kidwai. Meanwhile, the party is expected to refurbish itself to look younger before the 2014 poll. "In a couple of years a new team will emerge," says Congress's Mani Shankar Aiyar.  Man of All Seasons  Mukherjee has been the pointsman for the Congress in any effort to ride out the bad times. The portfolios he had handled range from finance to defence to external affairs to commerce to steel and mines to revenue to banking to industrial development to shipping to transport. So far, only the PMO and the home ministry have eluded him.  Key Moves  It was he who artfully kept the Left "engaged", buying time to fix the dealwith SP's Mulayam Singh Yadav before pushing ahead with the India-US nuclear deal. He has consistently held back-channel talks with BJP leaders to douse several political fires. It was he who "creatively spotted" in Sitaram Kesri's offer to step down as Congress chief what pundits call a "constitutional ground" to sack Kesri and crown Sonia Gandhi.  Now What?  Analysts say it is the practice of "warehousing apolitical loyalists" that has added to the Congress' woes of talent shortage in political management. Most insiders believe that without Mukherjee as chief troubleshooter, things are going to be tough in the run-up to the crucial 2014 poll which may see Nehru family scion Rahul Gandhi emerge as the Congress' prime ministerial candidate.      Therefore, many Congress leaders expect party chief Sonia Gandhi to put in a place a "political management" team in his shoes. As the prime minister kicks off his exercise of reviving the Indian economy as finance minister, she will have to pick from among his senior leaders such as P Chidambaram, AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kamal Nath.  Churning Likely  As it braces for polls, the Congress' leadership is also expected to "re-accommodate" regional satraps who are now given positions at the Centre to better "utilise their talents". They include SK Shinde (a contender, along with Chidambaram and Nath for the Lok Sabha leader's post), Vilasrao Deshmukh, SM Krishna, Veerappa Moily and old war-horses such as Vayalar Ravi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Jaipal Reddy, KC Deo and so on. Many party leaders say that the Congress is also expected to effect a generational shift. While leaders such as Ahmed Patel, Antony, Chidambaram, Singh, Azad, Oscar Fernandes, Ambika Soni, Nath and so on are expected to work closely with Rahul, the high command may create "more space" for promoting younger, middle-rung leaders in Delhi by sending some of the former and regional satraps to man their states; some of them may be dispatched to Raj Bhavans.      The idea is to give the impression that the UPA, if re-elected, will have many young faces — a poll strategy some Congressmen think will work in the party's favour; currently, the Union cabinet has 10 Congress ministers who are 70-plus and another 10 in their 60s. A few Congress leaders say that it is important that the family shed its status quo and grooms younger leaders whose parents or uncles or aunts aren't Congress leaders.      There are tough days ahead.