Daughter's book reveals how a disillusioned Pranab Mukherjee decried Gandhis' Congress dominance as 'worst hegemony'

A new book written by former president Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmishta PRANAB, MY FATHER: A Daughter Remembers [Rupa Publications India> based upon diary entries of the former president and a lifetime Congressman, makes scathing attacks on Rahul and Sonia Gandhi. Sample this entry in Mukherjee’s personal notebook made on 28 July 2020, just a month before his passing, “By making Congress a preserved playground for Gandhi-Nehru family, Congress lost its democratic character which impacted the polity of the country. After independence, if 5 family members of the same family controlled the Congress presidency for 37 years, it speaks of the worst form of hegemony. The family today is no longer providing vitality to the organisation but eating away its strength. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul since 2004 have lost base acquired even partially by Soniaji in 2001-2003. They are just interested in somehow forming a government at the Centre under Congress with other regional parties.”

Meticulously recorded and written in objective manner, Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmishta painstakingly produces a tomb of sorts, lifting veil and mystery over a series of significant events throughout the eventful UPA years. Mukherjee, since the early 1960s, had developed a habit of meticulously writing diaries. According to Sharmishta who had a brief stint as a politician, the book is based on diary entries and her conversations with him on varied issues over the years.

Mukherjee comes in particular, critical of Rahul, documenting his political immaturity and lack of application. Mukherjee had moved to the Rashtrapati Bhawan by the time Rahul had trashed an ordinance in 2013 that had sought to protect convicted politicians. That night, Mukherjee wrote in his diary, “Rahul Gandhi gate-crashed a press conference by Ajay Maken and described the decision of Cabinet as “nonsense”. This is totally uncalled for. He has all the arrogance of his Gandhi–Nehru lineage without their political acumen." Mukherjee went on to record how his office had received calls from Kapil Sibal and Ahmed Patel requesting him not to take any action on the ordinance. Mukherjee however, wondered how Rahul’s actions would impact the coalition partners.

Sharmishta says she was the one who first broke the news to him. “After a long time, I saw my father getting so angry! His face became red and he shouted, ‘Who does he [Rahul> think he is? He is not a member of the Cabinet. Who is he to publicly trash a Cabinet decision? The Prime Minister is abroad. Does he even realize the implication of his actions and the effect it will have on the Prime Minister and the government? What right does he have to humiliate the PM like this?"

According to Sharmishta, Mukherjee viewed Rahul’s outburst as the final nail in the coffin for the Congress. “The party’s vice-president had shown such disdain for his own government publicly. Why should people vote for you again?” he had asked Sharmishta who was herself active in the Delhi Congress unit. She recalls telling Mukherjee how Rahul had tried his best within the party to not promulgate the ordinance, but no one had listened. “When I reported this to my father, he sharply remarked that despite his many years in politics and his influential position within the party, if Rahul couldn’t persuade his colleagues without resorting to theatrics, then maybe politics wasn’t his calling.”

Mukherjee’s faith in Rahul was shaken after this incident. In Pranab Mukherjee’s assessment the Gandhis – Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi do not trust anyone completely except each other.

The 391 pages long book is not critical of Rahul entirely. In several instances, Mukherjee praises Rahul describing him as ‘very courteous’ and ‘full of questions’, which he took as a sign of Rahul’s desire to learn. But Mukherjee also could not help observing that Rahul was ‘yet to mature politically’. Rahul continued to meet Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan when the senior Congress leader had become president. Mukherjee often advised him to join the Cabinet and gain some first-hand experience in governance but Rahul did not heed the advice. During one of these visits by Rahul, Mukherjee on 25 March 2013 noted, “He [Rahul> has interest in a diverse range of subjects but moves very quickly from one subject to another. I don’t know how much he listened and absorbed.”

On 15 July 2013, Rahul had visited him over lunch. As per Mukherjee’s diary, Rahul spelt out in detail his plans for revamping the Congress organisation. Though the president did not write anything about those plans, he was appreciative and noted that Rahul ‘appeared confident of meeting the challenges. But had Mukherjee known what Rahul was about to do two months later [trashing government ordinance> he would have very strongly advised Rahul against it.

On Savarkar: Mukherjee disagreed with Sonia

Mukherjee wrote in his diary, on 25 February 2003, that in a Congress party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) meeting, Sonia Gandhi was angry with him for agreeing to put Savarkar’s portrait in the Central Hall, as he had filed mercy petitions and bonds of loyalty to the British. Mukherjee had told her, “That doesn’t reduce his sacrifice and patriotism” and wrote in his diary, “I told her firmly that I agreed in the meeting [of the Parliamentary Committee> to the proposal as I consider him a patriot, whatever be his views in the later years.” He further added in his diary, “People have become so small. How can one forget the sufferings Savarkar brothers had to undergo in cellular jail?” Interestingly, a faithful Congressman, Mukherjee told Sonia that he would not attend the function as the party had decided to boycott it, but he told her it was a wrong decision.

The writer is a Visiting Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. A well-known political analyst, he has written several books, including ‘24 Akbar Road’ and ‘Sonia: A Biography’. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.

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