About Congress Party
The former president felt lack of extraordinary leaders reduced the establishment to a “government of averages”. The leader penned some of his thoughts about the party in his memoir before death last year. In his memoir, Mukherjee mentioned that on the day of the results of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he directed his close aides to keep him informed of the trends every half an hour. However, when the results came in the evening, he was “greatly relieved over the decisive mandate but also disappointed at my one-time party’s performance”.
The Congress stalwart was astonished over the number of seats won by Congress. “It was difficult to believe that the Congress had managed to win just 44 seats. The Congress is a national institution interlinked with people’s lives. Its future is always a concern of every thinking individual,” he wrote in the book, published by Rupa Publications.
The former Congress leader and Union minister attributed this defeat to many reasons. “I feel the party failed to recognise the end of its charismatic leadership. Tall leaders like Pandit Nehru ensured that India, unlike Pakistan, survived and developed into a strong and stable nation. Sadly, such extraordinary leaders are not there anymore, reducing the establishment to a government of averages,” he wrote.
On PM Narendra Modi
Apart from the party, the former President also also wrote about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said the PM had not discussed the issue of demonetisation with him prior to his announcement on November 8, 2016. However, the move didn’t surprise him because such quickness are deemed necessary at the time of such announcements.
He also went on to mention that thereafter delivering his address to the nation, Modi visited Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan and explained to him the rationale behind the decision. “He desired an explicit support from me as a former finance minister of the country. I pointed out to him that while it was a bold step, it may lead to temporary slowdown of the economy. We would have to be extra careful to alleviate the suffering of the poor in the medium to long term,” Mukherjee said.
“Since the announcement was made in a sudden and dramatic manner, I asked the PM if he had ensured that adequate currency was there for exchange,” he added.
He wrote he had very cordial relations with Prime Minister Modi during his tenure. “However, I did not hesitate to give my advice on matters of policy during our meetings. There were several occasions when he echoed concerns that I had voiced. I also believe that he has managed to grasp the nuances of foreign policy quickly,” the book said.
“Modi had received a decisive mandate from the people to administer the country. Administrative powers are vested in the Council of Ministers, which the PM heads. Therefore, I did not breach my jurisdiction. Whenever tricky occasions arose, the issues were resolved,” he wrote.
“At an event in which PM Modi released a book and I was present, I remarked that it was not that I did not have any differences with him, but that both of us knew how to manage those differences, without bringing them out in public,” he added.
On foreign relations, Mukherjee felt that Modi’s stopover in Lahore was “unnecessary and uncalled for, given the conditions that prevailed” in India-Pakistan relations.
“It was evident that one could expect the unexpected from Modi, because he had come with no ideological foreign policy baggage. He was to continue with these surprises: he made a sudden and unscheduled stop at Lahore in December 2015 to greet his then Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, on the latter’s birthday; and he initiated an annual informal summit with the Chinese president - one was held at Wuhan in China in 2018 and the other, more recently, at Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu in 2019.”
On Presidential Tenure
On his journey as president, he derived satisfaction not only from the fact that he followed the rule book in letter and spirit in dealing with governments and issues of the day, but also because he never veered from the constitutional parameters that have been laid down for an Indian head of state. Mukherjee’s approach to maintaining cordial relations with Modi was rooted in the fact that “I believe in the parliamentary form of government and its principle”.
However, Mukherjee lamented that the NDA government, during its first term of 2014-19, failed in its primary responsibility to ensure the smooth and proper functioning of Parliament. “I attribute the acrimonious exchanges between the Treasury and Opposition benches to the arrogance and inept handling by the government. But the Opposition is not without blame either. It had also behaved irresponsibly,” he wrote.
(With inputs from PTI)