Pranab Mukherjee, Narasimha Rao, and R. Venkataraman's profile rises

Mukherjee (top), Rao (centre) and Venkataraman: First among equalsThe 15 Union Cabinet ministers, crouching in the awesome presence of Mrs Gandhi, are - technically at least - all equal. But there has often been speculation that some of them might be more equal than others. Last fortnight, as the prime minister was out on her 17-day-long, five-nation tour, the outline of a new pecking order was gradually emerging.The warrant that was gazetted officially by the Union Cabinet Secretariat soon after Mrs Gandhi's departure mentioned Pranab Mukherjee, commerce, steel and mines minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, external affairs minister, and R. Venkataraman, finance minister, as the second, third and fourth names respectively - after the prime minister, of course. Though an official hastened to add that the list was "no barometer of hierarchy", it was obviously a departure from the usual practice of putting down Rao, Mukherjee and Venkataraman in that order.The warrant, however, was merely of academic significance because both Rao and Venkataraman had left the country on September 21, two days before Mrs Gandhi flew to Jakarta on her way to attend the conference of Commonwealth heads of governments in Melbourne.Rao left for the United Nations General Assembly session, after which, girdling three-quarters of the globe, he arrived in Melbourne on September 29. Venkataraman went to the Bahamas en route to New York where he attended a crucial meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).Meanwhile, a crisis brewed at home as an Indian Airlines Boeing 737 was hijacked to Pakistan by fanatic supporters of the Khalistan movement on September 29. At 8 p.m., seven hours after the aircraft had been hijacked, the Union Cabinet went into session with Mukherjee presiding over it. Earlier, Mrs Gandhi had spoken to him twice over long-distance phone, disregarding the claim of Home Minister Zail Singh and Civil Aviation Minister Anant Prasad Sharma, the two concerned men, to brief the prime minister.A close aide of Mukherjee told India Today : "It's not known who'd have presided over the Cabinet if Rao and Venkataraman were present in the capital. I suppose the three ministers are equally important."Triumvirate: The rising profile of the Mukherjee-Rao-Venkataraman triumvirate has of late eclipsed the hopes of a string of veterans - the notable among them being Petroleum and Chemicals Minister P. C. Sethi, Works and Housing Minister Bhishma Narain Singh, Information and Broadcasting Minister Vasant Sathe and Zail Singh.An official in the Cabinet Secretariat recalls at least half a dozen occasions this year when meetings of the high-powered Political Affairs Committee of the Union Cabinet were preceded by informal discussions between Mrs Gandhi and the "group of three".In terms of the frequency of calling on the prime minister, Rao leads the rest of the ministers, having met her "officially" five times during the six working days of the September 13 - 19 week. Mukherjee and Venkataraman met her exclusively thrice each during the week. None of the other ministers, however, met her more than once.Rao, a powerful orator and a scholar of repute, is generally regarded as Mrs Gandhi's think-tank who is consulted on a number of affairs, big and small. Last year, when Sathe was in a fix trying to pin down Sir Richard Attenborough to a mutually acceptable agreement on the Gandhi film project, Rao took over the controls from him under Mrs Gandhi's orders.Recently, when the Centre was trying to find a way of removing the Maharashtra Chief Minister Abdul Rehman Antulay's personal control over his controversial trusts, Rao was sent to Bombay to find a legal solution. Said an insider: "Rao is a gentle persuader, not a hustler. That's his greatest advantage."The Favourite: Still, neither Rao nor Venkataraman has received the most favoured treatment from Mrs Gandhi. That, undoubtedly, goes to Mukherjee, "almost to the point of pampering", hisses another Congress(I) heavyweight from Mukherjee's home state, West Bengal.Unlike Rao and Venkataraman, who were elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980, Mukherjee lost his elections both in 1977 and 1980. His Rajya Sabha term expired this year, and he stood no chance to be re-elected from Marxist-dominated West Bengal.However, he had the rare luck to be permitted to contest the Rajya Sabha election from Gujarat. At the last moment, when some local Congress(I) legislators objected to the "intrusion'" of a "carpet-bagger", the party high command issued a stern fiat which quietened Mukherjee's detractors. He won the election hands down.Mukherjee is a member of all the five important Cabinet Committees - the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, the Cabinet Committee on Exports, the Cabinet Committee on Industrial Infrastructure, the Cabinet Committee on Electronics, Science and Technology, and the all-powerful Political Affairs Committee. Apart from the prime minister, only Venkataraman, by virtue of holding the common denominator finance portfolio, is a member of all committees.Mukherjee's twin charge of commerce as well as steel and mines gives him control over a large area of financial decision- making. The offices of the chief controller of imports and exports, working under the Commerce Ministry, dole out 200 import and export licences every day.Like an octopus, Mukherjee's Commerce Ministry has fattened on the spoils of other departments. Last year, the import of fertilisers, the second largest import after crude oil and petroleum-based products, was canalised - curiously - through the Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation (MMTC), a Commerce Ministry undertaking, in place of the Fertiliser Corporation of India. This year, even the import of rough-cut diamonds, worth Rs 90 crore and meant exclusively for value-added export, was canalised through the MMTC.However, Mukherjee himself is rather modest about his rising-star status in the Union Cabinet. "I don't see any caste system prevailing among the ministers. We are all serving the country under the leadership of our prime minister" - thus ran his bland, predictable reply.But a former union minister, who is a Congress(I) stalwart from Madhya Pradesh, added a piquant touch to the theme. He said: "Neither Rao nor Venkataraman nor Mukherjee has any roots in politics; none of them has a following in the Hindi-speaking heartland of India. As close advisers, none can be a safer bet than this trinity."With the recent Antulay affair exposing the pitfalls of having politically ambitious and resourceful men around the fulcrum of power, Mrs Gandhi cannot take chances with political heavyweights around her. Instead she needs, as the former minister elaborated, "a globe-trotting scholar like Rao, who is more at home in New York than his native Andhra Pradesh; a plodder like Venkataraman, who has no base in Tamil politics; or a living cash register, like Mukherjee. I think Rao is the man who only wheels, Venkataraman only deals, but Mukherjee does both".Published By: AtMigration Published On: Oct 29, 2013 11:41 IST--- ENDS ---

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Pranab Mukherjee, Narasimha Rao, and R. Venkataraman's profile rises

The 15 Union Cabinet ministers, crouching in the awesome presence of Mrs Gandhi, are - technically at least - all equal. But there has often been speculation that some of them might be more equal than others.

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