Former Indian president Pranab Mukherjee, who passed away on Monday, was a rare kind of resilient politician who remained determinedly loyal and relevant to the Congress party since his induction in 1969. Beginning his career as a campaign manager for a Congress stalwart in Midnapore, West Bengal, the pipe-smoking, lecturer-lawyer swiftly rose through the party ranks and held major cabinet appointments for years.
The pinnacle was his elevation as the 13th president of the republic in 2012. Mukherjee distanced himself from active politics upon assuming this high office, but at heart he was a quintessential Congressman and a loyalist of the Gandhi family that continues to helm the party to this day.
Often described as the "man for all seasons", he combined certain distinctive personal traits that stood him and the party in good stead for five decades, as he skillfully managed a mix of challenges, crisis situations and intractable political exigencies – both when he was part of the government and when he was in the opposition.
In her condolence message, Congress president Sonia Gandhi described Mukherjee as an “integral and prominent part of public life, the Congress party and the central government” and added that he had played “a crucial role in both shaping the course of events and participating in them". These words have an added resonance at a time when the party is going through an internal convulsion. Last month, a group of "protesters" sought inner-party deliberations and course correction – although this is not the first time that the leadership has faced such a challenge.
In an unintended manner, the trajectory of Mukherjee's political career encapsulates the burden that a Gandhi family loyalist has to carry. And if "Pranabda" – as Mukherjee was fondly referred to – had been consulted by both camps within the Congress, the current crisis could have been better managed.
The predicament India's "Grand Old Party" faces at the moment, as it languishes in the opposition following decades of dominance, is linked to the family.
The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has held the Congress presidency for a record 16 times, going back to family patriarch Motilal Nehru's appointment in 1919. His son Jawaharlal – India's first prime minister – was elected in 1929 and held this office six more times until 1959, when predictably his daughter Indira was elected.
After the demise of Jawaharlal in 1964, the president was elected from outside the family. But in 1969, Indira – by now prime minister – split the party to ward off an internal challenge and appointed family loyalists to this office. She returned to the helm in 1978.
The family saga continued when her son Rajiv was elected president in 1984 after her assassination. This was the period when Mukherjee fell out of favour with the family (he maintained this was due to a vilification campaign mounted against him by party rivals) and the loyalists rallied around Rajiv, who also went on to become prime minister.
Ironically, however, since being hand-picked and mentored by Indira in 1969, Mukherjee was perceived to be less than loyal to the family and unceremoniously expelled from the party in 1986. It left many to wonder whether he had exuded too much spine and competence. Regardless of the reasons, he was reinstated in 1988 and played a key role in managing the internal party turbulence after Rajiv's assassination in 1991.
When Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv's widow, acknowledged Mukherjee’s crucial role in shaping the course of events, the subtext was perhaps an allusion to the manner in which she was elevated to the party presidency in 1998. At the time, she was a political novice and not fully conversant – in a hands-on manner – with the fine "muck" of internal party intrigue and bitter factionalism. Mukherjee, the master strategist, invoked rarely used provisions in the party constitution to orchestrate an ouster of the then sitting president Sitaram Kesri.
Mukherjee's story fits a pattern – of being part of the inner family circle, then being excluded, perhaps even being publicly disparaged and rapped on the knuckles for any display of dissent.
The current crisis in the party has been dubbed the "G23 letter". It involves a group of 23 senior Congress functionaries who have raised their concerns over the leadership crisis that resulted in the 2019 parliamentary election defeat, when Sonia Gandhi's son Rahul stepped down as president after two years, following which his mother again assumed office.
This relatively courteous – and at one level constructive – letter from the so-called G23 was seen as criticism of the family. The fact that it was circulated when Sonia Gandhi was indisposed provided an emotional tinge to the matter. There was considerable angst and anger at a stormy meeting that followed on August 24. The net result, however, was that Sonia Gandhi was able to demonstrate her control over the party, thereby putting the protesters on the defensive.
The current attitude of the family is akin to "the dog in the manger" syndrome – the mother-son pair is unable to provide effective leadership in a sustained manner to make the Congress a credible opposition party, but is yet unwilling to permit a free internal election to put in place a new leadership group.
The Congress party is in a desperate need to carry out a rigorous internal review and accept that a root-and-branch re-organisation and a grassroots revival are both imperative for its survival. Mukherjee had acquired that kind of experience and mastery over electoral detail in relation to West Bengal, but there are few in the party now with that kind of heft or national profile.
The family has to enable the revival of the party in a holistic top-down manner. Electing Rahul as president again would be an inglorious self-goal.
C Uday Bhaskar is director of the New Delhi-based think tank Society for Policy Studies
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History's medical milestones
1799 - First small pox vaccine administered
1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery
1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases
1895 - Discovery of x-rays
1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1953 - Structure of DNA discovered
1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place
1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill
1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.
1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out
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Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
The biog
From: Upper Egypt
Age: 78
Family: a daughter in Egypt; a son in Dubai and his wife, Nabila
Favourite Abu Dhabi activity: walking near to Emirates Palace
Favourite building in Abu Dhabi: Emirates Palace
