Let’s start with a little nugget: of the four finance ministers who became prime ministers, three have been Singhs — Charan Singh, VP Singh and Manmohan Singh!

Be that as it may, when P Chidambaram was appointed a junior minister in 1985, Manmohan Singh was the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission. When the latter was appointed finance minister in 1991, Chidambaram was given the less important Commerce Ministry. However, when he finally got the finance portfolio in 1996, Manmohan Singh was just an ordinary MP.

In 2004 Manmohan Singh became Prime Minister and appointed Chidambaram as his Finance Minister. Anecdotal evidence suggests a certain degree of coolness in the relationship.

The late Pranab Mukherjee was appointed Finance Minister by Indira Gandhi in 1982. Manmohan Singh was the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India then. It was a subordinate post to Mukherjee. In 2004, Manmohan Singh became his boss as Prime Minister.

How did they get along? Once again we only have anecdotal evidence which suggests that Manmohan Singh left Mukherjee to his own devices.

Mukherjee couldn’t have been happy. In fact, he hadn’t been happy with the Gandhi family ever since Rajiv Gandhi dropped him for thinking he would succeed Indira Gandhi. When she died Mukherjee was the No 2 but Rajiv was her son.

The stand-outs

Going further back, six other finance ministers stand out: Liaquat Ali Khan during 1946 and 1947, TT Krishnamachari (TTK) in 1965, Morarji Desai during 1968 and 1969, Charan Singh in 1979 and VP Singh in 1986.

Liaquat Ali Khan belonged to Jinnah’s Muslim League. He had a low opinion of his boss, Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru had a tough time with him. Khan insisted on hurting Congress interests.

Thus, in February 1947, Khan came up with a budget that doubled the tax on business because Indian industry was largely Hindu and supported the Congress. The support base of the Muslim League was the big landowning class.

Khan also imposed a large profit tax on business. A huge tussle ensued and in the end the Viceroy had to intervene to get the rates reduced.

The first Finance Minister in independent India to have serious issues with the Prime Minister was John Mathai. He objected to Nehru setting up the Planning Commission. He thought this would dilute his Ministry’s powers. He quit.

The next was Morarji Desai who was dropped from the Cabinet by Nehru in 1963. Nehru wanted senior ministers to work for the party.

Next it was TTK with Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. TTK was forced to resign in December 1965 and never made it back.

Morarji’s reign

Morarji Desai became Finance Minister again in 1968 and quarrelled with Indira Gandhi. She was very much his junior and regarded by him as a ruthless upstart. It was an open fight for two years over economic policy. Eventually, Morarji Desai resigned — before being dismissed, perhaps.

In 1977, however, he became Prime Minister after Indira Gandhi was defeated in the post-Emergency election. He didn’t last long because Mrs Gandhi pulled down his government and installed his Finance Minister, Charan Singh, as PM. She pulled him down too.

He resigned before he faced a vote of confidence in Parliament. The Congress which had promised support didn’t give it.

Two other Finance Ministers would become Prime Ministers in the next 20 years, VP Singh and Manmohan Singh. But it was the first Singh who fought a pitched battle with his Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. His first budget in 1985 gave the first indication of reforms when he cut income taxes sharply. His second budget was also in the same direction.

But in 1986 he started a tax hunt for businessmen, many of whom had the Prime Minister’s ear. By the end of 1986, it was all over and in January 1987 Singh was ‘demoted’ to the Defence Ministry.

In April he resigned and soon started the nucleus of a new political party. Three years and seven months later he replaced Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister.

The case of Manmohan Singh falls in no man’s land, so to speak. Soon after being appointed Finance Minister he offered to resign when there was a massive objection by senior members of the Congress party to his budget proposal cutting subsidies on fertiliser. Narasimha Rao persuaded him to stay on. Stayed on he did and how!

Thirteen years later he became Prime Minister without having fought for any Prime Minister. The job simply fell into his lap when his boss Sonia Gandhi refused to be Prime Minister.

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