When septuagenarian Kamal Nath was sworn in as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh on 17 December last year following the Congress' slender victory in the Assembly polls, many thought, and justifiably, that the state would actually be run by Digvijaya Singh — his long-time colleague and counterpart in the previous Congress regime in the state. The arrangement, it was argued, suited Nath since he had no desire to fritter away his energies in dealing with routine administrative tasks, much less the pulls and pressures of local politics. Freedom from the mundane would help him focus on the real job: Fulfilling key promises like the farm loan waiver, assured in the manifesto, before the Lok Sabha polls.
Those who know Nath agree that sitting in the chief minister's chair was not exactly a dream job for someone with a Davos mindset assiduously cultivated during his tenure as Union Minister for Commerce and Industry (2004 to 2009) and later Urban Development (2011 to 2012) under the UPA rule. Nath, in fact, had once told this writer that big cat ministries like home or external affairs never held his interest. His work at Udyog Bhavan gave him more of a chance to think global and be with the prime minister than any other ministerial assignment.