With Rahul Gandhi announcing that he is not interested in becoming the Prime Minister of India, the race for who will be his Manmohan and the Congress’ Prime Ministerial candidate in the next general elections has commenced.
Diggy was the first to throw his hat into the ring with this pithy SMS to his ward: “Rahul baba, time for you to pay your Guru Dakshina”. Mani Shankar Aiyer, not one to be far behind, spammed Sonia’s inbox with messages such as “Madam, I see glimpses of Rajiv in him.” A K Antony was seen camping outside 10, Janpath with the placard “Cleaner than even Dr. Singh.” Chidambaram for his part has ditched the Thirukural all together for prophetic verses from the Bible about leading his flock to the Promised Land to score brownie points with the high command.
However, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, could emerge as the dark horse. Monty’s candidature received a boost after Dr. Manmohan Singh wrote a glowing recommendation letter on behalf of his protégé to the Nehru Gandhi scion.
Thanks to our mole in the PMO, The Unreal Times managed to get hold of this correspondence:
Dear Rahulji,
Sub: Recommending Monty’s candidature to be PM under you
I learnt from news reports that you have no desire to become Prime Minister after 2014. Madam has also hinted that you might become number 1 soon. So I take it you are looking for a suitable candidate for the post of Prime Minister of India to report into you. I would like to recommend the case of my understudy, young Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
The boy is a chip of the old block: utterly unelectable and completely apolitical. And just like me, he’s not interested in meddling in murky affairs that are best left to professional politicians – ordering CBI raids, issuing licenses, big ticket defense purchases, land deals for cronies. For that matter, he’s not that kicked about the rather tiresome communal vs secular debate either but will occasionally chip in on this front if goaded.
Indeed, I’ve been grooming him to take over from me for the last 9 years and I’m sure he’ll make as good a Sherpa to you as I was to madam.
Monty has been receiving attractive job offers lately such as Head of Emerging Markets Fund at Goldman Sachs and Chief Economic Advisor to the Republic of Djibouti but he would rather take up the job of Prime Minister of India. So it would be great if you could quickly come to a decision regarding his application. He is very keyed up to take over from me and steer the economy back to an 8% plus growth trajectory.
I have attached his CV for your consideration.
Yours sincerely,
Manmohan Singh
[Enclosed: Montek Singh Ahluwalia's Curriculum Vitae]
PS: If I were you, I would not hobnob too much with that Jairam guy. Any man who claims to be good at both politics and economics must be kept at an arms-length.