Palanimanickam back as Minister of State in Finance
S.S. Palanimanickam is back in the Finance Ministry as MoS. He was there for the last five years – without really making his presence felt much – after all what could he do with such a senior powerful Cabinet Minister like Chidambaram as his boss. Senior Officers in the Finance Ministry are not known to be very respectful to the MoS – for that matter even the junior officers are not much different. And if Chidambaram is the boss, naturally there is no place for an MoS. But Palanimanickam was rather sportive and never complained. He knew the equations and the arithmetic, as he happily paid second fiddle to PC. But he was not without his sense of humour when an AIADMK MP asked him how Chidambaram treated him – “Much better than how Jayalalithaa treats you”, he retorted.
If Chidambaram was a towering personality, Pranab Mukherjee is a mountain peak. He was boss even to the Prime Minister! He was known to have treated his MoS like school kid, not even offering him a chair.
It's really difficult to be MoS to such senior and powerful cabinet ministers, but Palanimanickam being humble and knowing his limitations, will be able to do a good job – within his limits and what Pranab Babu will allow him.
He once said, “First, I want to know the size of the ground. Then I will decide how to play on the ground.”
In the last five years, he must have measured the ground – now he can play, provided Pranab Babu allows him to.