Jaipur, (Samajweekly) Sharmistha Mukherjee, daughter of former President Pranab Mukherjee, on Monday recalled that her father — a late Congress veteran — was quite sad with the current state of affairs of the grand old party during his last days.
She said this while speaking on a plethora of subjects at the ‘Jaipur Literature Festival’ here.
Speaking of her book, ‘Pranab, My Father: A Daughter Remembers’, Sharmistha said the former President was a die-hard fan of former PM Indira Gandhi even as, during his last days, he was quite sad with the state of affairs in Congress.
“My father had told Sonia Gandhi that it would have been better to be in the opposition than to have a weak government. Had my father been there, he would have been very upset with the current condition of Congress. This is the state of mind not only of him but of every Congress leader.
“I am also troubled by the current situation. There is a rumour about me joining the BJP, but I am not going anywhere. I am a hardcore Congress worker,” she said.
Meanwhile, Sharmistha said that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should also get Bharat Ratna.
“He has made an important contribution in improving the economy of India. He should get ‘Bharat Ratna’. My father respected him a lot. Even after Manmohan Singh became Prime Minister, he used to address my father as ‘Sir’. My father had also expressed objection to this many times. Both respected each other,” she said, while adding that she believes that a “non-Gandhi” should be given an opportunity to lead Congress.
Sharmistha also spoke about the controversy regarding her father visiting RSS headquarters in Nagpur.
“Once my father went to Nagpur. I was active in Congress then. I strongly opposed his visit to the RSS programme. I also had a fight with him about this matter. I asked him if he gave legitimacy to the RSS by visiting there. Once he got irritated and said, ‘who am I to give legitimacy to RSS?’ He then told me ‘I had gone to the RSS programme to explain the ideology of Congress. There I had spoken about the thoughts of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru,” she recalled.
