New Delhi [India], November 11 (ANI): Former MoS for the Prime Minister's Office and senior Congress leader, Prithviraj Chavan, acknowleged that former President Pranab Mukherjee had ambitions to become the PM.
Speaking to ANI on Sonia Gandhi's memoir titled ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’, Chavan said that Pranab Mukherjee was a sought-after man in the party and harboured ambitions for the top post in the central government, as he thought he was senior to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
He said, "The fact that Pranab babu harboured ambitions to become the Prime Minister is well known. I was in the PMO at that time and used to interact with him. Even before he became a minister, I used to interact with him. Sonia ji used to ask me to go get something checked with him; a senior leader and one-man think tank of the party. He was frank with me because he knew my parents very well. He felt he was senior to Manmohan Singh ji. Nothing wrong with having ambitions."
However, he said that the party went ahead with Manmohan Singh in 2009 for his second term as the PM for his work towards India's foreign policy, especially strengthening relations with the United States and the handling of the 2008 global financial crisis.
"But things were going well in 2009 largely to the credit of Manmohan Singh ji for the handling of foreign policy, and in 1991 he turned the country around with the economic policy. He turned around the foreign policy as the Prime Minister, especially the relations with America, and the party cashed on it. He handled the 2008 financial crisis very well," he said.
Chavan also said that the sad part of Manmohan Singh's tenure was the 26/11 Mumbai attack, with which he said Sonia Gandhi was upset and made senior members of the party accept the responsibility.
"Sad parts were the bombing and the shooting (26/11 Mumbai terror attack), and Mrs Gandhi was very upset with that and made certain people accept responsibility. The people she helped become Chief Ministers or the Prime Minister; if they did something wrong, she would not tolerate it," he said.
The Congress leader stated that the book uncovers some of the lesser-known facts about Sonia Gandhi's personal life.
He noted, "What I have known through interviews and media, there are definitely some facts not known to the general public and are known only to the close inner circle or the family. For example, the death of her first son and the fact that she underwent cancer surgery twice. There are certain sections which will continue to be controversial. Whatever she said, what others have to say about when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister. At first she thought there was an accident, but later Priyanka told her and Vincent George made the confirmation. The book basically is a love story with the man she married and the country that she adopted. There were suggestions from her family to go back to Italy; she refused."
In her memoir, Gandhi said that the late Pranab Mukherjee’s aspiration to become the PM was never “lost”. She added that the former President always felt that he was the natural candidate for Prime Ministership due to his seniority and experience.
“Over the years he held virtually all the important portfolios in previous Congress governments, but deep down he felt his seniority and experience made him a natural candidate for the prime ministership,” Sonia said.
Pranab Mukherjee's daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee on Tuesday defended her father's ambition to become Prime Minister.
Sharmistha questioned why his ambition should come as a surprise, saying that it was backed by decades of experience in politics and governance, hard work and intellectual ability.
"What's there to get 'shocked' about? Is it a crime to be ambitious, especially when that 'ambition' was supported by decades of experience in politics & governance, hard work & a brilliant mind? Once, when asked by me whether he wanted to become PM, he very candidly answered that 'any politician worth his salt has this ambition'," Sharmistha said in a social media post. (ANI)
"Pranab Mukherjee's ambition to be PM is well known": Prithviraj Chavan describes former President as "one-man think tank"
