Pranab's victory a new beginning

Most of our presidents were elected to office on the strength of their exemplary record of public service. Pranab Mukherjee is all set to join their ranks. But we have also had presidents who landed the job for reasons that were far removed from their intrinsic merits. They were creatures of political expediency alone.
There is another category of individuals who served the nation well and yet failed to get their due.Two in particular deserve special mention: Y B Chavan - whose birth centenary is being celebrated this year - and Jagjivan Ram - whose death anniversary falls on July 6. Both came from humble backgrounds. Both had more or less the same achievements to their credit. And both suffered the same fate: they were denied the two top jobs of the republic.
Though he is hailed, quite correctly, as the architect of modern Maharashtra, Chavan in fact made seminal contributions to national life as a whole. Appointed defence minister in the wake of the Sino-Indian war, he moved swiftly to restore the morale of the forces, re-establish cordial relations between the forces and the civilian government, take steps to make the forces self-reliant and forge close ties of cooperation with major world powers, especially the United States and the Soviet Union. Later, as home minister, finance minister and external affairs minister, he continued his endeavour to strengthen democratic institutions, promote pragmatic economic policies, provide a boost to inclusive development programmes and strengthen India's bargaining position in a bipolar world.
Known for his spotless character, Chavan also earned an enviable reputation as a political leader who had a voracious appetite for arts and ideas. He had friends across the political spectrum. Moreover, his brilliant oratory in Marathi, not to speak of his literary gifts in this language, gave him a stature, especially in Maharashtra, that remains unequalled to this day. The highest post he reached was a brief stint as deputy prime minister under Chaudhary Charan Singh after he quit the Congress. He returned to the Congress fold but by then his political career was well behind him.
Much the same fate awaited Babu Jagjivan Ram. Indeed, his politi-cal trajectory was in some respects identical to Chavan's trajectory. Both came up from the ranks in the Congress. Both made a mark in their respective states. Both held several ministerial posts at the Centre to great effect. But in some other respects, Babuji's record was even more remarkable. Born in a dalit family in Bihar, he was the first child in his village to go to high school and later to study at the Benares Hindu University. He joined active politics in the latter half of the 1930s and waged a two-pronged battle; one against British colonial rule and the other for the emancipation of the dalits.
However, unlike the tallest leader of the dalits, B R Ambedkar, Jagjivan Ram was a thoroughbred Congressman who was utterly in thrall of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Madan Mohan Malaviya among others. He made his mark in the Congress before Independence. He was a member of the Constituent Assembly. Much like Chavan, he left his mark in every ministerial position he held both as an able administrator and as a statesman: labour, communications, mines, agriculture (he is seen to be the prime architect of the Green Revolution), railways and defence at the time of the Bangladesh liberation war.
Like Chavan, Babu Jagjivan Ram quit the Congress on the eve of the general elections held after the Emergency in 1977. That enabled him to rise to the highest political position he ever held: deputy prime minister in the Janata government. Why did they not get the top slots? One reason surely is that the stature of both discomfited the Nehru-Gandhi family. The other was their 'betrayal' of the Cong-ress. Pranab Mukherjee, who also quit the Congress but returned to the fold and then went from strength to strength, has broken the jinx. The significance of his election as president goes well beyond his personal attributes. It signals a new coming of age for the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and for the political establishment as a whole. Yet again the resilience of India's democracy stands vindicated.