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P. Chidambaram attended the book launch commemorating the late Pranab Mukherjee. A few days back, the veteran Congress leader’s daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee, who turned her father’s diary entries into a book, made several “not-so-great” revelations about Congress and Rahul Gandhi.
The event marked Mukherjee’s 88th birth anniversary and witnessed the release of Pranab: My Father: A Daughter Remembers. Chidambaram’s presence was notable amid the conspicuous absence of other Congress leaders.
Sharmistha, a former Congress spokesperson, noted the non-attendance of invited party members. She said that she was pained that only Chidambaram had turned up among Congress leaders.
“This reaction to a certain excerpt of the book shows that they should introspect and see whether they are actually upholding the values, actually practising what they are preaching,” PTI quoted her as saying.
The book offers insights into Mukherjee’s life. It includes his time as a lifelong Congressman and his various roles in the UPA I and UPA II Cabinets. Mukherjee had a close relationship with Indira Gandhi. The time when he worked with the then-Prime Minister was “the golden period of his political life”, he believed.
What Sharmistha said earlier
Sharmistha Mukherjee, in a recent TV interview, said that her late father had told her once that Rahul Gandhi was not fit to be the prime minister. She also revealed in the interview that Pranab had viewed Rahul as someone having the “arrogance” of the Gandhi-Nehru lineage without having the political acumen to match it up.
The veteran leader felt that Rahul Gandhi “lacked the killer instinct and also had a distance from the party”. As per Sharmistha, however, the book has very few references to Gandhi.
Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar earlier said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was using Sharmistha to defame Rahul Gandhi.
Sharmistha specifically spoke about the time when her father’s name was being considered as one of the potential candidates to become the prime minister. It was after Sonia Gandhi had withdrawn her name.
When she asked him if he was going to become the PM, his response was “blunt” “No, she (Sonia Gandhi) will not make me the PM. It’ll be Manmohan Singh,” the late leader apparently told his daughter.
(With PTI inputs)
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Published: 13 Dec 2023, 11:59 AM IST
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