Losing face, finding some faces
On May 13, after the assembly election results, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee showed up at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi to deliver a message: that it was a verdict for “stability” and the opposition should make no further attempt to destabilise the government at the Centre. The Congress was emphatically returned to power in Assam, it registered a back-from-the-brink victory in Kerala, and its ally, Trinamool Congress, led a sweep in West Bengal.