He has no primary group, no circle of friends, no personal following, no party network which he can call his own, no active media lobby and no comrades or colleagues in the Congress. He is a loner and has generally remained loyal to Indira-Rajiv-Sonia. Perhaps that is another attribute common between him and Pratibhatai. When Shivraj lost his seat in Latur, nobody had any sympathy for him. But there was shock in his constituency when he was chosen as one of the top cabinet ministers. It is truly a mystery how he rose to the level he has.

But that is a bit like the famous Peter Sellers’ film, Being There. In it a gardener, serving in a millionaire’s estate, having no knowledge of the world outside that estate, inherits all the wealth. Suddenly finding himself a rich man, he starts getting importance and a point comes when he gets nominated as a candidate for the presidency. He even goes on to become president of the US. He is clueless about how he came into power, or what to do with it. The last line in the film, which is also on Sellers’ tomb, is: ‘Life is a State of Mind’. For Shivraj, Life is a Virtual Reality. In this reality there is no contradiction between being a candidate and not being a candidate.

You just cannot have a conversation with him. He has been like this for well over the three decades that the media and the political class have known him. Nobody can quarrel with him. He never raises his voice. If a reporter asks him a question or if a local Congress neta asks for a favour, he shrinks back a little, fine wrinkles appearing on his face. But within a few seconds he recovers and becomes a wax statue again. He then turns to the reporter and says, “That’s an interesting question.” He promises to look into it. To the local neta, he shrugs, “I do not handle that issue.” He also explains that he is busy with some nationally important policy matters. Both the reporter and the neta leave, neither impressed not dejected. For a while, they too feel that life is a virtual reality.

... contd.