This was in 2018, when Pranab MukherjeeThe then 82-year-old had retired to a government bungalow after hitting heights few politicians reach: president, minister in charge of key portfolios, a long career dating back to the days of Indira Gandhi and all the worldly success.
Mukherjee, a man who did not hesitate to express his views, ignored the consternation in the ranks of the party he had been a part of and moved on, quoting Jawaharlal Nehru, often on the receiving end of Sangh Parivar’s attacks, in his speech. . . But, the inherent message that he did not see RSS as “untouchable” served to underscore how he had been courted by BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
For someone who saw so much and traveled so far from the remote Mirati village of Birbhum, the ending can hardly define the contradictions that life in politics can be and that Mukherjee negotiated with poise. He was at the center of the action during the UPA, topping a record number of GoMs and playing as the chief problem solver despite a confidence deficit with the Gandhis That never quite went away The roots of the latent discord date back to 1984 when Mukherjee fell out with Rajiv Gandhi in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s murder. He denied harboring ambitions of leadership and said that Rajiv was deceived. Being removed from the cabinet in 1984 came as a shock, and after separating from Congress, he returned six years later. When the time came, he proved to be a reliable guide for Sonia Gandhi when she assumed a new political role, entering Parliament in 1999.
If it continued to rise, it was because Mukherjee was a quintessential manager working in the communal, secular, socialist, capitalist and corporate halls and was part of a group that had no enemies but rivals in politics. Today, people like Sharad Pawar and Mulayam Singh Yadav they are fading. Mukherjee was the best of the group.
Despite all his political friendships, Mukherjee was a die-hard congressman, planner, and key strategist regardless of whether the party was in office or in opposition. His sharp mind caught the attention of Indira Gandhi and she led him to Rajya Sabha, making him vice minister and minister of state for economic portfolios before he became finance minister in 1982. He never forgot his debt to his mentor, often remembering her as the best PM and a realist who ordered Pokhran one.
Mukherjee continued to serve important assignments in the Narasimha Rao government as vice chairman of the Planning Commission and later as cabinet minister. It was also Rao’s choice for political duties. His report on the situation in Tamil Nadu before the 1996 elections was prescient. He advocated for an alliance with DMK, advice Rao ignored, leading GK Moopanar and P Chidambaram to form the Tamil Maanila Congress. TMC and DMK swept the state, making a crucial difference for Rao and Congress.
Later, Mukherjee accepted Manmohan Singh’s choice of Sonia as prime minister, but never had any qualms about asserting himself. Officials waiting outside of cabinet meetings would recall that his loud tones often leaked out, indicating that he was the one speaking most of the time. In the wake of the 11/26 attacks, he unleashed verbal salvoes against Pakistan on a daily basis, softening more than Singh BJP’s calls to action. Mukherjee was a one-stop shop at UPA, the intersection of politics, politics, ego, and territorial issues. He did not stray from the drafts, clashing with Chidambaram on various issues. Their “joint appearance” out North Block in September 2011, where Mukherjee distanced himself from a note on the 2G spectrum, it will remain a photograph etched in memory. A few months earlier, he had created quite a stir by writing to Singh telling him that he suspected there was a listening device in his office.
And yet, for all his qualities, the post of prime minister remained elusive. High-profile and independent-minded, his previous revolt made him unsuitable for the top job when UPA defeated the BJP in 2004. Sonia chose Singh, qualified, trustworthy and devoid of any political and corporate baggage. Mukherjee could not be Minister of the Interior either, too powerful a position for an intrepid politician. Too smart to get stuck on a lost bus, Mukherjee set his sights on a new target: Rashtrapati Bhavan. He worked hard to win allies in every game. When the time came, it didn’t seem like the first choice. This time Mukherjee anticipated resistance and forced the hand of Congress as “secular” voters like Mulayam Singh Yadav backed him. On one particular night, Ahmed Patel sat with “dad” until the wee hours of the morning, assuring him that he was the party’s choice.
Mukherjee was not just a canny politician. He earned respect for his encyclopedic knowledge of history and the Constitution. He was a key arbiter of the Indian-US nuclear deal during which he kept the left engaged and distracted until it was too late for comrades to block the deal. For a man of strong secular beliefs, he could see religion in a cultural context. Every Durga Puja, he would be in Jangipur and don the bhadralok dhoti and kurta, flaunt his janeu and immerse himself in a 10 day prayer. He used it to good effect in Parliament by breaking into the BJP’s political Hindutva by citing scriptures to highlight the heterogeneity of thought in Hinduism.
Mukherjee rose even higher when the Modi government awarded him the Bharat Ratna. While the leaders of Congress attended the award ceremony, the Gandhis and Manmohan Singh did not. By then, Mukherjee had overcome partisan failures even as he was still a congressman by conviction.
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