'Stop the memoir', siblings engage in public spat over father Pranab Mukherjee

Even before former President Pranab Mukherjee's memoir hits the book shelves, controversy around it has come out in the public. On the issue of the release of Mukherjee's last book ‘Presidential Years’, the siblings have come out in the open with their differences.

Son Abhijit has written to the publishers asking them not to release the book till he went through it and accused it of being malicious. He tweeted, "I, the son of the author of the Memoir 'The Presidential Memoirs' request you to kindly stop the publication of the memoir as well as motivated excerpts which is already floating in certain media platforms without my written consent."

Soon after, his sister Sharmistha hit back. "I daughter of the author of the memoir ‘The Presidential Years’, request my brother @ABHIJIT_LS not to create any unnecessary hurdles in publication of the last book written by our father. He completed the manuscript before he fell sick." The public spat is also being seen as a fight for the legacy of Pranab Mukherjee.

Abhijit Mukherjee's surprising request came days after the release of excerpts in which the former President blames Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh for the Congress's exit from power.

Late Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit and daughter Sharmistha, both are Congress leaders. However, when it came to contesting from Pranab Mukherjee’s constituency Jangipur, it was the son who was chosen instead of the daughter. 

Late President Pranab Mukherjee's memoir titled, 'The Presidential Years', will be globally released in January 2021. The book is said to give an insight into his political career, Congress party and tussle for power. The former President who died this year in August, has apparently blamed in his book, the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi for the party's 2014 defeat. 

The book further states how some Congress members were of the opinion that had he been the Prime Minister, the party would not have lost power in the Lok Sabha elections.

Dr Mukherjee also compares the two Prime Ministers he worked with - Manmohan Singh and his successor Narendra Modi.

The fourth volume of Mukherjee's memoirs recollects the challenges he faced in his years as the President including the difficult decisions he had to make and the tightrope walk he had to undertake to ensure that both constitutional propriety and his opinion were taken into consideration.