A ‘memoir’ sans a ‘blemish’

Pranab Mukherjee or Pranabda, as he is reverentially addressed by his admirers and critics alike, is one of the last graceful Indian politicians. He is one politician who loomed large over the Indian establishment for nearly four decades. Rising from the position of a junior minister in the Indira Gandhi Government in early 1970s, he capped his political career with the highest office of President of India which he demitted only a few months ago, a distinction that no one can match in recent times.

Pranabda was unfortunate not to ascend to the office of the Prime Minister. It was not his misfortune but the country’s bad luck not to have a seasoned administrator like him as the Prime Minister. He was the senior most and highly experienced politician when Dr Manmohan Singh pipped him to the post in 2004 with the return of the Congress-led UPA coalition government at the Centre.

Mukherjee must have been hurt. Yet he never cribbed about it. He even has the grace to write about Manmohan Singh: “A strong nationalist, a man of courage and conviction, Manmohan Singh was certainly not ‘an accidental Prime Minister’. I am convinced that the future will judge Manmohan Singh in a different light as PV is assessed today.”

It is vintage Pranabda, fair and objective like an honest journalist. You would get to read many such anecdotes and assessments from him in his latest book, the third volume of his memoir, with a fourth on the anvil.

Dada’s latest book is once again a candid account of Indian coalition politics starting from 1996 when the Deve Gowda-led government broke the single party rule at the Centre and ended in 2012 when he moved over to the RashtrapatiBhavan. His special focus is on the two Congress-led UPA governments in which he was a key player.

He has covered the entire span with candour and recapped all events during the period from the times when Congress president Sonia Gandhi declined to be the Prime Minister to the dramatic days of Anna movement and later moving over to Raisina Hills as the President. During this journey back into the 1996—2012, Dada looks back objectively at all the events of which he was personally a player and plotter.

Unfortunately, Dada’s latest book reads more like a journalist’s diary, fairly and objectively recording events without much insight or analysis. He, it seems, is not consciously judgmental as it is neither his temperament nor his style. Pranabda is perhaps the only exception in Indian politics who with his nearly four-decades-long political journey has retired without any blemish. It is his personality trait not to rub anyone on the wrong side and it reflects in his book too.

Dada is cautious about both his colleagues and rivals, giving their positives wherever due. It is a known fact in political circles that Sonia Gandhi denied him the chance to be India’s Prime Minister. Yet he is nowhere bitter about her in his book. Instead, he objectively writes about Sonia: “Looking back, I can say that as the longest serving Congress president, Sonia’s positive contribution to strengthen the Congress party has not received due attention in the analysis of contemporary observers.”

Pranabda has been a minister or political player at the top levels all through the period he has covered in the book. He was bound by his oath of office not to disclose anything beyond a point. He, therefore, scrupulously maintains protocol and delicacies of a practising politician while dealing with events and politicians.

Well, he is one of the most seasoned and longest serving political players who from the Indira days to the present times, except during Rajiv years, has not only been an insider but a close participant too in the Indian establishment. Anyone wanting to know what happened during these years cannot afford to ignore his books.