My Perspective: Vijay Sanghvi Shots in Darkness

A visit by the former president Pranav Mukherji to the Nagpur establishment of the Sangh Parivar and his address to t volunteers rally became a launching pad for several will political guess by all those who use the social media as vehicle for their fantasies. There is no fear of inviting libel suits or a need to prove the base and cause for such wild thoughts. Among wild speculation was the belief that the Sangh leadership may opt for Pranav Mukherji as its candidate for projection as the Prime Minister at the coming election, in place of Narendra Modi. There cannot be a wilder guess as a shot in darkness. The speculation indicated that the fertile brain did not need even to comprehend the back ground of either. Pranav Mukherji was certainly in political arena for four decades but always as appendage to the power centre and not as independent political star. The Sangh tried to sell as is religious base as political agenda for 13 elections since 1952 but without success. Then any such combination was nothing more than a day dream and neither of them are known to wallow in luxury of day dreams. Mukherji moved closer to Indira Gandhi as junior minister in 1974 as he constituted no danger as being a politician who had no space to stand on his legs in his state or outside or he could earn loyalties of even a single political being. He strived hard to prove his loyalties during the emergency and equally hard to disassociate himself from excesses during 20 months of emergency. He was most conservative and traditional person in his approach to both politics and economy. Hence there was no danger of his emerging with dazzling and bright idea to upset any apple cart. He was hoping to be successor to Indira Gandhi after her assassination but he could not get the post even as interim arrangement till election of a leader of Parliamentary Congress party. The Congress leaders trio had forced the then President Zail Singh to administer oath of office to Rajiv Gandhi without waiting for his election as leader by the party. Pranav Mukherji had to pay a heavy price even for entertaining a hope of the interim post. Rajiv Gandhi shunned him away not only from his cabinet but a year later even from his party. Mukherji went out of his way though unwittingly to expose that he was a lonely person without friends or supporters. His gamble of forming the state party exposed the lack of support and his lonely figure with his pipe in his mouth spending hours in the Central hall of Parliament provided a pathetic picture of his politics. From 1972 to 2009 he never dared to contest the Lok Sabha election from his state or from any constituency outside. He could win one and only time in 2009 as Mamta Bannerji propped him up. Even Sonia Gandhi had preferred Man Mohan Singh to Pranav Mukherji as her nominee in 2004. He proved as a finance minister to be a roadblock economic reforms agenda of the Prime Minister, he sought graceful retirement by adorning the office of the President in 2012. How can such a timid politician venture to be nominee of the Sangh Parivar? However the major question is from where he can get elected from among 501 seats of the Lok Sabha outside Tamilnadu? His getting in from Tamilnadu is next to impossible and the Sangh ensuring his victory from outside in equally difficult. The Sangh cannot ignore Narendra Modi and his ability even after two years campaign to malign his rule as most atrocious event without a positive achievement. The sustained campaign was to establish that NaMo was merely a newspaper tiger and not even a paper tiger. Maligning someone is much easier with greedy media owners always ready to serve any interest for consideration but building someone as a winner is most hazardous task. The wild and baseless guess work floated on social media and its becoming viral without adverse or critical comments provides glimpses of variety of elements. The wild guess presumes that the Sangh wants or is willing to get rid of Narendra Modi as his rule has not enhanced hold of the Sangh. The Sangh is desperate and is u8nable to find an alternate within so it can go on a wild goose chase. In desperation it can choose a person only because he adhered to traditions in his four decades politics. The wild guess also indicates a belief that unfulfilled ambition of Pranav Mukherji can induce him to hold onto any support or offered hand. In other words his political career never had a shine of moral gloss. In short the circulated guesstimates hold Indian politics and Indian politicians is very low grade. The surprise is that they do not hold the Sangh as an organization with pure and moral strength. It is difficult to identify the characters and politics of persons who float such ideas. However close look at ideas, opinions and comments circulated on variety of social media net works give us glimpses of characters of always critical mind, defenders of variety of individuals or ideologies. Most of them failed to make their marks in main field but few of them were also successful but their retirement deprived them opportunities. Few of them are brilliant minds but their brilliance, despite their feet in every camp was the main cause of their failures to get opportunity to put their brilliance to better utilization. They fail to realize that heir brilliance is or rather their habit to out their brilliance on display is the cause of their failures. Few are only observers who enjoy the fun games on social media. But the shot in dark over the visit of the Nagpur establishment by the retired President seeking the retry to get back in political arena was not a fun game. It spoke of very low opinion of various institutions.