No 2’s influence

When it became clear that the Left would persist with its anti-nuclear deal stand, jeopardising the stability of the ruling coalition, the UPA Government, with a possible mid-term poll in mind, started implementing schemes after schemes for the aam aadmi. Amid all this, it dawned upon Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee at last week’s Cabinet meeting that two schemes—the Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana and the health insurance scheme for below-poverty-line families—were being launched on October 2. It was also proposed that the old-age pension scheme for BPL families be added to this list. Mukherjee, it is believed, suggested that the proper occasion for launching these programmes was Indira Gandhi’s birthday. He said the former PM had been equally committed to the cause of the aam aadmi and he should know—he was afterall the No 2 in her Cabinet. The No 2 even in the current Cabinet, Mukherjee had no trouble getting his fellow ministers’ nod for November 19 as the new inauguration date.