TNN
New Delhi, Apr 2: Most would attribute Pranab Mukherjee's perennial number 2 status to his inability to be on the right side of his party high command.
But the man who has shouldered the most challenging of responsibilities for the government in the past five years has an entirely different take on the issue. Mukherjee feels that his "inadequate'' knowledge of Hindi and roots in a state which has been dominated by the Left to the disadvantage of the Congress may well have gone against him.
He also said in a TV interview that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was comfortable with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and that the premier was a "superior intellectual person" lest the party leadership take his comments amiss. Mukherjee, who is contesting Lok Sabha polls for only the second time, said Singh was a "highly-rated economist'' who enjoys the confidence of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
"I am a very critically self-analysing person. To run this country coming from north India and not be fluent in Hindi is totally unacceptable...My total knowledge of Hindi is inadequate. That is number one,'' said the 73-year-old Mukherjee.
"You must have a strong backing from the political party and particularly the state from where you are coming. I am representing a state of the Left party where the Congress party is not in power for a long 32 years,'' he pointed out while replying to a query on his views about the PM's post.
Sonia has at least twice publicly made her preference for Singh clear in the past few months. There were times in the past few years when Mukherjee seemed to carrying a major part of the workload -- heading 150-odd GoMs and playing firefighter with allies — and even Leader of Opposition L K Advani complimented him for his efficiency.
Yet, Pranab babu, as he is fondly called, has not even attracted a cursory glance as a prospective PM. That he is given to being politically correct was evident again when he said that he did not have Singh's expertise. "I am not a political activist. I don't have that type of expertise. Secondly, he enjoyed the confidence of Mrs Sonia Gandhi and that's why when the office was offered to Mrs Sonia Gandhi, it was for her to decide who she would like to or whom she would find more compatible,'' Mukherjee said.