Rahul tearing ordinance was last nail in Congress coffin, thought Pranab

Aditi Tandon

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New Delhi, December 7

Late President Pranab Mukherjee saw Rahul Gandhi’s ordinance-tearing act on September 27, 2013, as the final nail in the coffin of the Congress on the eve of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, reveals a new book set for December 11 release. “Pranab, My Father”, a Rupa Publication by the late leader’s daughter Sharmishtha Mukherjee, also notes how Pranab voiced disappointment at Rahul’s frequent disappearing acts.

The book records an incident where Rahul was given an evening appointment to meet Pranab, then President, but he turned up in the morning when the latter was on a morning walk. “It turned out that Rahul was scheduled to meet Pranab Mukherjee later in the evening but his office mistakenly informed him that the meeting was in the morning… When I asked my father, he commented that ‘if Rahul’s office cannot differentiate between am and pm, how do they hope to run the PMO one day?’” Sharmishtha records in the book, which also quotes Pranab as saying that Rahul had all arrogance of the Gandhi-Nehru lineage “without their political acumen”.

The book also reveals that Pranab knew Dr Manmohan Singh would be the Prime Minister should Congress form a government. It also throws light on the reasons behind distrust between the late veteran and then Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

The suspicion, the book says, arose from grapevine that Pranab had staked claim to PM-ship after the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. That was not true, the author says. To Sharmishtha, Pranab, the 13th President of India, was Baba, a workaholic, a history teacher, and a devoutly religious man who never imposed his faith on his daughter.

In the book, Sharmistha reveals her family’s private world that was populated by the Gandhis — Indira, Rajiv, Sonia and Rahul; PMs PV Narasimha Rao, Atal Behari Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh; and, more recently, Narendra Modi. “PM Modi would always touch Baba’s feet,” she says. In author’s own words, the book speaks of Pranab Mukerjee’s unfulfilled ambition to be PM.