Late former president Pranab Mukherjee’s memoirs, whose final volume is to be published next month, has made sensational claims about the second stint of Manmohan Singh and first stint of Narendra Modi as prime ministers.
In his memoir, titled ‘The Presidential Years’, Mukherjee claimed that Manmohan Singh was pre-occupied with saving his coalition during his second stint as PM while Narendra Modi was “autocratic” in his first term as the Prime Minister. Manmohan Singh’s second term was between 2009 and 2014, while Narendra Modi has been the Prime Minister since 2014.
Pranab Mukherjee served as the 13th President of India between 2012 and 2017, seeing the two different prime ministers during his tenure. In the memoir, Mukherjee reveals the relationship he shared with two politically opposed prime ministers during his tenure as the president.
“While Dr Singh was preoccupied with saving the coalition, which took a toll on governance, Modi seemed to have employed a rather autocratic style of governance during his first term, as seen by the bitter relationship among the government, the legislature and the judiciary,” Mukherjee wrote in the book.
He also presents a critical point of view for the Congress party, in which he was a senior leader for over five decades. He candidly refutes the view of leaders of the party, who believed had Mukherjee become the PM in 2004, the party might have averted the 2014 Lok Sabha drubbing.
“Though I don’t subscribe to this view, I do believe that the party’s leadership lost political focus after my elevation as president. While Sonia Gandhi was unable to handle the affairs of the party, Dr Singh’s prolonged absence from the House put an end to any personal contact with other MPs,” he wrote.
The late former president’s memoir is slated for a worldwide release in January 2021, publisher Rupa Books announced on Friday.
Source: Times Now
