Pranab Mukherjee in his book compares Manmohan Singh and his successor Narendra Modi.
New Delhi:
Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit Mukerjee, after a public fight with his sister Sharmistha over the former President’s last book, insisted today that the publishers should hold the book until he read through, claiming his father “had he been alive, would have gone through it before final roll out”.
Abhijit Mukherjee posted fresh tweets this morning, a day after his sister publicly snubbed his call to the publishers of Pranab Mukherjee’s memoirs, “The Presidential Years”, to stop the book until he vetted it.
“Contrary to the opinion of some, I am not against the publishing of my father’s Memoir but I have requested the publisher to allow me to go through its contents before final roll out and I believe my request is quite legitimate and within my rights as his Son,” Abhijit Mukherjee, a Congress leader and former MP, tweeted.
“Had my father been alive, he too would have gone through it before the final roll out as he had done in the past too for his other volumes. Till then, and I repeat, till then, the publisher has been requested to stop publishing motivated excerpts to gain cheap publicity,” he wrote, hitting back at his sister.
The war of the siblings – both Congress leaders — played out on Twitter yesterday, days after publishers Rupa released excerpts in which Pranab Mukherjee blames Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the Congress’s 2014 defeat.
The controversial excerpts have hit the Congress at a time its leaders are openly questioning the leadership, especially the Gandhis, after successive election defeats. The book, the last in a series, is set for release next month.
Sharmistha Mukherjee yesterday accused her brother of seeking “cheap publicity” and forbade him from creating “unnecessary hurdles” in the book’s release.
Abhijit Mukherjee had written that the publishers should “stop the publication of the memoir as well as motivated excerpts” floating without his written consent.
Sharmistha Mukherjee countered him within hours.
I, daughter of the author of the memoir ‘The Presidential Years’, request my brother @ABHIJIT_LS not to create any unnecessary hurdles in publication of the last book written by our father. He completed the manuscript before he fell sick 1/3
— Sharmistha Mukherjee (@Sharmistha_GK) December 15, 2020
The final draft contains my dads’ hand written notes & comments that have been strictly adhered to. The views expressed by him are his own & no one should try to stop it from being published for any cheap publicity. That would be the greatest disservice to our departed father 2/2
— Sharmistha Mukherjee (@Sharmistha_GK) December 15, 2020
Btw bro, the title of the book is ‘The Presidential Years’, not ‘The Presidential Memoirs’. 3/3
— Sharmistha Mukherjee (@Sharmistha_GK) December 15, 2020
In the final volume of “The Presidential Years”, Pranab Mukherjee, who died in August, tackles the tricky subject of his losing out on the job of Prime Minister when Sonia Gandhi chose Manmohan Singh in 2004.
Mr Mukherjee also compares Manmohan Singh and his successor Narendra Modi and talks about various controversial decisions during his term.
