Taking a break from his hectic official duties in New Delhi and elsewhere, Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will now, for the next five days, perform the role of a priest and preside over the Durga Puja at his ancestral home in a hamlet in West Bengal’s Birbhum district.
He has been doing this regularly for some years, and how important it is to him personally can be gauged from the fact that he cut short an important visit to the United States and returned to New Delhi for this purpose. Mr Mukherjee, who was in Washington for the annual World Bank-IMF meeting, dropped Los Angeles from his itinerary to return home in time for the festival.
“He will be arriving in Kolkata late Tuesday evening by a special flight, and attend the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the proposed financial hub at Jyoti Basu Nagar on Wednesday. After that he will leave for Kirnahar,” said state Congress leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, a close associate of the finance minister.
Mr Mukherjee was born at Miriti village, close to Kirnahar in Birbhum, over 200 km from Kolkata. His grandfather Jangaleswar Mukherjee had started the family puja almost 100 years back, and the tradition had been kept up by Mr Mukherjee’s father Kamadakinkar Mukherjee. “Now Pranabda is carrying on the tradition,” Mr Roy explained.
The residents of his ancestral village feel even more proud of Mr Mukherjee this year as the London-based journal Emerging Markets has named him the best finance minister in Asia — based on nominations by public and private sector economists, analysts, bankers, investors and other experts.
Mr Mukherjee reaches the village on Mahashasthi, which falls on Wednesday, and is due to remain there till the weekend. Once he dons the pattabastra (a silk cloth worn to worship the deity), the country’s finance minister and the undisputed No. 2 in the UPA government takes on the mantle of a priest. He will participate in all rituals, including the bodhon and anjali, and also recite the Chandipath.
While he usually remains at the village at least till the immersion of the idols on Bijoya Dashami, which falls on Sunday, October 17, it is not yet clear if he will be able to stay away from New Delhi that long this year — particularly in view of the recent political developments in Karnataka.
Hundreds of people from nearby villages and beyond — including some from Kolkata — flock to Kirnahar every year during Mr Mukherjee’s annual sojourn. This is also the time he manages to catch up with relatives and some close friends.