Bharat Ratna Former President Dr. Pranab Mukherjee passes away
वो लोग बहुत ख़ुश-क़िस्मत थे जो इश्क़ को काम समझते थे या काम से आशिक़ी करते थे हम जीते-जी मसरूफ़ रहे कुछ इश्क़ किया कुछ काम किया Hello there, this is Kabir Gandhi. Today, on the second day of my podcast, I will restrict myself to paying my respects to Bharat Ratna Former President Dr. Pranab Mukherjee who passed away a short while ago at the age of 84. I have been a huge fan of Dr Mukherjee, whom I had the great privilege of meeting personally during UPA-1. 'Pranab Da' as he was fondly called by friends and foes alike, he had a long and distinguished political career spanning over five decades, almost all of which he spent within the Congress Party. He was at the helm of almost every major ministry in Government of India, except for the top post, the Prime Minister-ship. One of the suavest politicians in post-Indira era, Dr. Mukherjee was often the chief-strategist, the chief trouble-shooter, and the fulcrum, on which the union government of the day revolved. His significance could be gazed from the fact that he once headed more than hundred all-powerful inter-ministerial committees. Of course, Dr. Mukherjee too had his fair share of controversies - but none stuck with him as much as the "canard that he had staked his claim to be sworn in as interim PM immediately after the assassination of former PM Indira Gandhi, and had to be persuaded with great difficulty to withdraw his claim." That allegation is further emboldened by the fact that soon after, Dr. Mukherjee quit the Congress and made his own party the Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress (RSC), in West Bengal. It's another matter that he merged his parry with the Congress only three years later only to stay loyal to Congress forever. Dr. Mukherjee, in his book 'The Turbulent Years' that is the second book, in his three-volume memoirs, Dr. Mukherjee recalls those exact days; Dr. Mukherjee was the one who broke the news of Indira Gandhi's "assault" on the fateful morning, to Rajiv Gandhi while both were in Contai (Kanthi) town of West Bengal to attend a political meeting. On their flight back, that had on board many other prominent Congress leaders such as Uma Shankar Dikshit, then Governor of West Bengal, his daughter-in-law Sheila Dikshit, Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Shyamlal Yadav, as well as the Secretary Generals of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, it was decided mutually that Rajiv Gandhi should succeed Indira Gandhi to the PM's throne. As soon as the flight landed, however, then Cabinet Secretary Krishnaswamy Rao counselled Dr. Mukherjee toe to take over as interim PM as Gulzari Lal Nanda had done in the past, to which, Dr. Mukherjee told him, promptly, that Rajiv Gandhi would be sworn in as a full time PM as there was no need of an interim-PM. However, this canard didn't die down, as Arun Nehru recommended that Rajiv Gandhi should be sworn in immediately by the Vice-President R. Venkataraman, instead of the President Giani Zail Singh who was not in country and was supposed to return at 5 PM the same day, as he feared that owing to his deteriorating relations with Indira Gandhi before her assassination, Giani Zail Singh might not agree to administer the oath to Rajiv Gandhi and instead insist on Pranab Mukherjee as the interim-PM. Dr.Mujherjee admits in his book, as well as quotes P.C. Alexander, from the latter's biography 'Through the Corridors of Power' that both of them counselled Rajiv Gandhi why such a haste would not only be constitutionally inappropriate as the Vice-President, in the absence of an express delegation by the President, had no power to administer path to PM, but also be deemed wrong by the world at large. Dr. Mukherjee again quotes from Alexander's biography and says that Rajiv happily agreed with their rationale. Pe
