DNA Edit: A chronicler’s tale

The third volume of former president Pranab Mukherjee’s autobiography charting out The Coalition Years: 1996 to 2012, isn’t a tell-all account in the strictest sense of the term. But it does contain several startling revelations that offers interesting insights into the workings of the UPA I and II governments, and its two key players, Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. Mukherjee had held key portfolios in both the dispensations, but his dream of becoming the Prime Minister remained unfulfilled, even though, arguably, he was the best man for the top job. Understandably, he is a bitter man. That bitterness somewhat reflects in his portrayal of Gandhi, and the way she had steered the Congress during those years in power.

The Congress’s ‘inflexibility’ in dealing with allies was also a measure of the party president’s arrogance. At the same time, it shows how Mukherjee kept the flock together in those years, despite his reluctance to join the government. One can’t deny the fact that he did shepherd the Congress during its turbulent phases as a spin doctor, a responsibility only he could execute with such finesse. Perhaps, Gandhi didn’t consider him as pliable as Singh who, surprisingly, did get away with his demands once in a while.

What’s also surprising was Gandhi’s strong disapproval of Bal Thackeray — Mukherjee still met him and sought his support for his presidential candidature — when the Shiv Sena was widely perceived to be Congress’s B team in Maharashtra politics in the early years of the saffron party. In politics, untouchability is a luxury no party can afford.