In a week when Rashtrapati Bhavan is in the headlines, it is relevant to recall a little nugget from our political history. It seems that in the very early sixties, when Jawaharlal Nehru showed first few signs of tiring and flagging and there was some concern in the Congress top brass, the then president, Rajendra Prasad, sent out word that, should a change become necessary, he was willing to “step down” and take over the onerous responsibility of prime ministership. It was such a big sacrifice, his messenger is supposed to have told the Congress high command, but the president was willing to do so if the national interest so required.

We do not know if Nehru called him to say, thanks, but no thanks. What we can see is that even in the serene early sixties, a real politician — like Rajendra Prasad — knew which was the job that mattered in our power structure. The same logic drove the rumours of the reverse in the NDA government’s second half, when a certain ‘camp’ freely suggested to journalists desperate for ‘items’ for their political gossip columns that, through an ‘internal’ arrangement brokered by the RSS, Atalji could be ‘elevated’ to Rashtrapati Bhavan and a more ‘active’ person put in the prime minister’s job. There was, of course, nothing to it — and surely no reporter of the Express ever took that bait, because it was no more than empty intrigue which used to go on among the flotsam of failed politicians, debt-defaulting businessmen and their flunkies and assorted busybodies that hung around the BJP core of the NDA government. But even now, that is until early years of this decade, there was no doubt as to which job mattered, and which was mostly ceremonial. Presidency was a job for a retired politician looking for the Republic’s finest sinecure. Active politicians, with ambition and hunger for power, knew where it lay, in the cabinet, ideally in the prime ministership.

... contd.