Pranab: I thought if Sonia chose MMS for President, she may choose me as PM

Congress after Rajiv Gandhi

P.V. Narasimha Rao provided stellar leadership to India at a critical juncture. Not only did he stabilise and turn around the nosediving economy, he also revitalised India's foreign policy. The fact that he led a minority government did not stop him from putting in place the necessary correctives. In the 1996 general election, the Congress party under the leadership of P.V. Narasimha Rao faced a major defeat, reducing its strength from 232 to 140 in the Lok Sabha. This electoral loss was inexplicable, given that it came after PV's exemplary steering of the economy through the balance of payments crisis and the introduction of major economic reforms. PV was, however, not surprised. In fact, he had shared with me his fears of Congress defeat ahead of the elections. The fact was that in the initial phase, economic reforms largely affected the elite, and the potential benefits were yet to percolate to the masses. Elections are essentially a function of the politics of the masses and the performance of the Rao government had little to show in terms of its populist appeal.

Kesri's 'Mere paas waqt nahin hai'

[Sitaram] Kesri's tenure as treasurer was sixteen years long and he became a butt of a few jokes within the AICC, with one being about his accounting procedures: 'Na khaata, na bahi, jo Kesriji kahen wahi sahi.' As Congress president, Sitaram Kesri played a crucial role in destabilising the United Front government, first led by [H.D.] Deve Gowda in 1996 97 and then by I.K. Gujral in 1997 98. The Deve Gowda government had been deliberately targeting the Congress. Members of the Congress, including former prime minister Narasimha Rao, were being prosecuted by the police on charges of corruption. The Bofors issue too was once again resurrected by the Gowda government. The Congress party could not support a government which was bent upon maligning and persecuting its leadership.

Despite the fact that he led a motley coalition precarious from the start, Gujral refused to yield to the Congress's demand of dropping DMK from the coalition after the Jain Commission's findings were released. So why did the Congress withdraw support? What did Kesri mean by his oft repeated comment, 'Mere paas waqt nahin hai (I have no time)'? Many Congress leaders interpreted it as his ambition to become prime