The Hindu Business Line : Who runs the show?

The Minister of External Affairs, Mr Pranab Mukherji, speaking at a conference in New Delhi on December 20, demanded to know in some exasperation who was in charge in Pakistan. His exact words were: “We do not believe it is for us to advocate how other countries should be governed but we would, most certainly, like to know whom we should deal with vis-À-vis another government; in other words, who runs the show?”

He added: “Genuine democracy does not come about merely by holding an election but by a process of democratisation that makes the elected representatives accountable and more importantly in ensuring that there does not exist a separate and de facto centre of power that is actually pulling the puppet strings”.

Funny, he should be saying that, because the same question has been doing the rounds about India also. Who is in charge: Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, as the head of the Government, or Ms Sonia Gandhi as the head of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)?

Playing safe

There being no commonly accepted clear-cut answer, leading lights in politics within the country and dignitaries from abroad are seen playing safe by paying equal respect to, and being on the right side of, both of them, as the best insurance against any irreparable damage to their desired objectives.

During the heyday of Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, too, there were many who were convinced that it was not she but her son, Sanjay Gandhi, who was in charge. In fact, as a close observer of the New Delhi scene at the time, I knew it for a fact that whoever wanted anything done or undone made it a point to make a beeline to Sanjay Gandhi and not to his mother, and in almost all cases, his merest wish was taken to be the unquestioned command for those in the Government, whether they were Ministers or bureaucrats.

Coming to recent times, was it Ms Rabri Devi or her husband, Lalu Prasad, who ran the show in Bihar, when Lalu inducted her in his place, following his indictment in a criminal case?

Pathetic figure

The question, “Who is in charge?” has cropped up in the affairs of various countries also from time to time. There is the well-publicised instance in which poor General Alexander Haig, who was Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan, was shown cutting a pathetic figure as the man who, profusely sweating, mumbled “I am in charge here” (when he obviously was not) to reporters on the occasion of the attempted assignation and wounding of President Reagan.

There have been instances of persons close to US Presidents running the presidency by proxy, whether with the acquiescence of the President, or for reasons beyond their control.

In President Dwight (‘Ike) Eisenhower’s time, his chief of staff, Sherman Adams, was widely perceived to be all-in-all, Ike spending most of his time on the golf course indulging his passion for the game. Fortunately, in Adams he had a sober and responsible public servant who took care not to get his boss into trouble.

The case of President Woodrow Wilson is the intriguing illustration of a President who was incapacitated from discharging his duties by a prolonged illness the exact nature of which is still an unsolved mystery.

His wife Edith and his close confidant, Colonel Edward House, went to great lengths to keep Wilson’s ailment under wraps so that to all outside appearance, and for aught the US and the world knew, decisions on affairs of state given by them on his behalf were taken to be the President’s own.

B. S. RAGHAVAN