Sharmistha, daughter of former President Pranab Mukherjee, said her father liked to share his views “firmly and strongly” in party forum and did not like to speak on party issues in public. Talking about her book ‘In Pranab, My Father: A Daughter Remembers’, she talked about the bond that her father enjoyed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress party colleagues like Indira Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and other parliamentarian
In the book she says that Mukherjee was aware that he was qualified for the top post but also realised that Sonia Gandhi would never make him the PM but give the priority to Dr Manmohan Singh. At the same time, Mukherjee did not have any bitterness against Sonia Gandhi or Manmohan for not making him the prime minister, she said.
In her book, Sharmistha said that her father did not find a place in Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet as the latter feared a challenge to his authority. She also cited the notes of her father where he stated that Rajiv Gandhi considered him a “tough nut” who wouldn’t “tow anybody’s line blindly”.
Pranab Mukherjee served as commerce minister (1993–95), external affairs minister (1995–96 and 2006–09), defence minister (2004–06), and finance minister (2009–12). He was India’s 13th president (2012 to 2017). He died on August 31, 2020 at the age of 84.
Talking about her book which chronicles her interactions with here father, whom he fondly refers as baba, she talked about her father’s views about Rahul Gandhi and Mukherjee’s interaction with PM Narendra Modi.
Sharmistha said that her father was a copy-book president and he had no intention of interfering in the work of the government.
She recalled that her father’s conversations with Modi were more informal in nature and he used to describe the nature of talks as “a political adda”.
Sharmistha’s book also recalls that after Rahul Gandhi’s public display of anger over a proposed government ordinance in 2013, Mukherjee had noted in his dairy; “He has all the arrogance of his Gandhi-Nehru lineage without their political acumen.”
The writer also talked about Mukherjee’s request to Sonia Gandhi to allow placing of the mortal remains of P.V. Narasimha Rao at the AICC headquarters but he did not receive a positive response. “This perhaps was the one reason for which baba could never forgive Sonia Gandhi,” said Sharmistha.
