Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent bypass surgery - which required him to be out of office for a week - followed by a six-week convalescence period, has raised vital questions about the glaring absence of a functional head of government in the world's largest democracy.
With a crucial national vote due in months, this unprecedented situation has thrown up questions of a leadership vacuum in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition.
Though External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, 74, the senior-most cabinet member, has stepped into the premier's shoes partially, he has not been designated the officiating prime minister or deputy. In other words, there's a conspicuous absence of a singular point of authority in the incumbent government while the premier recuperates.
For the first time in its six decades of independence, India had a Republic Day parade, on January 26, without the prime minister officiating over the ceremony. So even as a team of 10 doctors pored over the intricacies of Manmohan's 12-hour heart surgery to correct five coronary blockages, President Pratibha Patil completed the Republic Day formalities.
She received the president of Kazakhastan, the special guest at the parade this year, and inked six pacts with him while Vice President Hamid Ansari was given the ceremonial duty of distributing bravery awards to children at the Republic Day function.
What does the Indian constitution say about this leadership vacuum? Strangely, there's ambiguity about the number two slot in the premier's absence. According to senior Congress leaders, India doesn't have the constitutional provision for a caretaker premier. So the premier's work has been decentralized and divided, though the decision to do it this way is driven more by politics than administrative requirements or a constitutional protocol.
The constitution states that the government will be formed by a premier who enjoys the confidence of the Lok Sabha, the Lower House. His role thus ends with the appointment of a cabinet that will run the country and advise the president.
In any case, India's experience with deputy premiers - on the few occasions the post was created - has been nothing to write home about. The last time the country had such a post was during Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule when Lal Krishna Advani - the party's 82-year-old premier aspirant in the current elections - was designated deputy premier to Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But political observers saw that more as an attempt to assuage Advani's ego than anything else as he was already Vajpayee's number two in the BJP fold.
However, this constitutional ambivalence suits the Congress-led UPA just fine as it is in any case reluctant to name a successor to Manmohan outside the Gandhi family - even a transient one - due to its own insecurity. There's an innate fear that naming a number two will strip the premier's aura from Manmohan, a man chosen personally by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Also, anointing a deputy will take the edge off Rahul Gandhi's candidacy as India's future premier. Interestingly, Manmohan is the only premier to be chosen despite not being a Lok Sabha member, a constitutional prerequisite.
But even as Mukherjee, the Congress-led government's trusted loyalist and veteran trouble shooter, is set to run the country for the next few weeks, he is being denied the imprimatur of a deputy premier or the party's official number two. In a move that is typical of the opaque Congress and its enigmatic leader Sonia Gandhi, no official announcement has been made about Mukherjee officiating as the prime minister, even though he will be chairing cabinet meetings in Manmohan's absence apart from handling the Finance Ministry (the premier's additional charge).
So while it would serve Congress well to capitalize on Mukherjee's vast reservoir of political and administrative experience, he will be denied his legitimate due as the cabinet's senior leader. In fact, senior leaders admit anonymously that Manmohan was chosen for the top job in 2004, over other contenders including Mukherjee, by Sonia Gandhi. Mukherjee was kept out because of his strengths, which could have made him an alternate power center in the UPA government.
The same political dynamic manifested itself yet again when Mukherjee was briefly considered for the position of president but was sidelined for the relatively unknown Pratibha Patil, who even carried the baggage of a raft of political controversies with her. Even though Mukherjee had got the Left's support to become the country's president in 2007, Sonia Gandhi wasn't keen to anoint the politically astute Mukherjee as president.
This pattern is repeating itself yet again with Mukherjee. Though he is currently serving his sixth term in parliament, handling the prime ministerial responsibilities, including chairing cabinet meetings, he is barred from being a contender for the top job in the upcoming elections. This is viewed by many as unfair as Mukherjee, the number two in the Manmohan cabinet, is perhaps the only minister in the UPA government who can adroitly multitask and has handled two crucial ministries - Finance and Defense - as foreign minister.
During the entire period of UPA rule since 2004, whenever Manmohan was away Mukherjee has presided over cabinet meetings and the cabinet committee had to make decisions collectively. Similarly, though Manmohan currently has the additional charge of several portfolios - Finance, Coal, Environment and Forests, Information and Broadcasting, Space and Atomic Energy and Personnel - only Finance has been entrusted to Mukherjee as an additional charge. Curiously, the other ministries held by the premier are going to remain headless while he recovers.
In other words, the political message is clear. There is actually no number two in India under UPA government rule, though Mukherjee will forever remain an unofficial number two but sans the power that comes with the territory.
This is an important message on the eve of the national election, more so because Rahul Gandhi is likely to be the Congress' future prime ministerial choice. But because he needs more political grooming before he can don the premier's mantle, the non-threatening Manmohan is seen as the perfect person to keep the premier's seat warm for him.
However, this is a politically myopic view. Given the political vicissitudes of a gargantuan and complex democracy like India, anointing a deputy premier will serve the country well. Apart from establishing a clear chain of command, the post will also ensure a seamless functioning of the Congress government. More so in these turbulent times when terror, an economic downturn and an ailing septuagenarian premier are coalescing to drive home this point.
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