While anticipation, and controversy, builds over the much anticipated visit of former president and veteran Congressman Pranab Mukherjee to the RSS headquarters, THE WEEK correspondent Rabi Banerjee recollects an extensive interaction with him during the 2009 Lok Sabha election campaign.
Despite Pranab Mukherjee's long association with the Congress, his ties to Sonia Gandhi and current party chief Rahul Gandhi have often been described as testy. While Sonia has always been 'held responsible' for preferring Manmohan Singh as prime minister in 2004, sources close to Mukherjee told this correspondent it was Rahul, in fact, who openly batted for the economist-turned-politician. But these 'setbacks' have seemingly never held back this master politician.
In the scorching heat of summer in 2009, this correspondent had the opportunity to travel with Mukherjee, then finance minister in the UPA government, who was seeking his second win in the Lok Sabha from Jangipur, West Bengal. For the first time, he looked to me as wining the seat as he was then known as a man for Jangipur. Till 2004, he had been defeated every time he stood in a Lok Sabha election.
But in 2009, Mukherjee's work spoke for himself, whether he was defence minister, external affairs minister or finance minister in UPA-1. In different avatars, Mukherjee modernised his constituency in different ways. Be it giving a passport centre, opening two dozens bank branches or even opening Army recruitment centres. In fact, these were just a few of the large number of projects he did in his Lok Sabha constituency.
I could not hold back from asking Mukherjee, “If you could do so many works for a single term as Lok Sabha MP, then how come you have a bad name that you never did any good work being a politician belonging to Bengal for so many decades?”
Mukherjee smiled and said, “That is because I used to be a Rajya Sabha MP always who had to give money across the state as I did not have any constituency. A Rajya Sabha MP often pays for projects outside the state even.”
Mukherjee was jovial then and he even opened up like never before.
I asked him about a rumour in 2007 that he would be considered for the post of president, but it was the relatively little-known Pratibha Patil who trumped over him.
Mukherjee smiled and admitted, “Yes, the issue cropped up and I admit that I liked to become the president of India. But Sonia Gandhi did not let me become that. She said my service in the government was required the most.”
After a typical Bengali lunch at a party worker’s home in Murshidabad, with his favourite Pabda fish, poppy seed Vada and dal, Mukherjee then dozed off for a while. Our interaction with him began again once he woke up and moved out for another course of his journey across his constituency.
I started from where I had left the conversation.
“Sir, would you not have liked to become the prime minister?” I asked him.
Mukherjee turned a little grim but told me, “Yes, there were chances, but I could not become. Now, I also don’t expect to become the prime minister as I would not be able to bring many Congress MPs from my state.”
My next question was what role would he want to see himself in in case it would be a UPA-2 government in 2009.
Mukherjee did not think twice but said, “Though it is the prerogative of the prime minister, I would like to retain the finance ministry, which has been my choice always.”
It seemed to this correspondent that Mukherjee was the creator of his destiny and he continued being finance minister till he quit office to become president in 2012.
In a free-wheeling conversation, Mukherjee told me that he would not like to work under the next generation of Congress leaders, led by Rahul Gandhi, whom he had seen from the time the latter was born.
As I write this story hours before Mukherjee's much-awaited address at an RSS event in Nagpur on Thursday, I remember feeling the frustration in his eyes during our interaction in 2009. He was considered the frontrunner to succeed Indira Gandhi as prime minister in 1984, but he accepted being passed over because Rajiv Gandhi was the son of Indira. He was denied a second chance after Rajiv’s demise because of his exit from the Congress after differences with Rajiv for a brief period.
What was more painful to him was the third chance he lost when Sonia refused to accept the prime ministership in 2004. Despite his impeccable loyalty to the Gandhi family, Mukherjee was denied the prime minister's post, which he, and others, felt he had deserved the most, being the senior-most Congress leader of the country then.
People close to him told this correspondent later it was because of Rahul, who openly advocated for Manmohan Singh to take over as PM in 2004. What went against Mukherjee, perhaps, was his friendly relationship with BJP stalwarts like Atal Behari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani and Jaswant Singh. Arun Jaitley often used to discuss the 'tricks' of governance with Mukherjee privately. Yet, Mukherjee was critical of the BJP, but not for the sake of opposition, as he opposed the saffron party on issues. He never personally attacked any BJP leader.
His former party is today stunned when Mukherjee is all set to address an RSS event. It would be sheer lack of intelligence to expect that Mukherjee would bash the RSS at its own event. He would not have accepted the invite had he been extremely critical of RSS and would use the event to bash the RSS.
On the other hand, Mukherjee would not have invited Mohan Bhagwat to Rashtrapati Bhavan and then give him an earful at his own event. That is not the 'Bengali way' of doing things and Mukherjee is a 'pure Bengali' who has always stayed true to his roots.
Today, Mukherjee is no longer in the Congress and not even its primary member. But Congressmen are mincing no words for him, reminding him of his historic past, being an able administrator for five decades.
Even his daughter is under pressure to express her views opposing the RSS 'venture' of her high-profile father. Mukherjee, as this correspondent knows him, would not mind as he has always taken his adversaries sportingly. Rajiv Gandhi, Sidhartha Shankar Ray and even Mamata Banerjee have spoken against him but he befriended all of them later.
But what has haunted Mukherjee always was the perceived insult he had received being the senior-most politician of the Congress who was denied his chance to become the prime minister of the country he served for over five decades as Union minister, since the 1970s.
What Mukherjee says at the RSS meet at Nagpur on Thursday is not important. But today, it seems Mukherjee is out to pay back the Congress in its own coin by ignoring protestations against his RSS visit.