Late President Pranab Mukherjee’s soon to be released book ‘The Presidential Years’ has triggered a public spat between his son and daughter. The book, excerpts of which were released by the publisher recently, is expected to hit the stands in January, 2021.
Abhijit Mukherjee, Pranab’s son, took to Twitter to raise concerns over the memoir and said he wants to read the book before it goes for final printing. “Since my father is no more, I being his son want to go through the contents of the final copy of the book before its publication as I believe had my father been alive today, he too would have done the same,” Abhijit, a Congress leader, said. Soon after the series of tweets, Pranab’s daughter Sharmishta Mukherjee took to social media slamming her brother for creating ‘unnecessary hurdles’ in the book’s publication. “I, daughter of the author of the memoir ‘The Presidential Years’, request my brother Abhijit Mukherjee not to create any unnecessary hurdles in publication of the last book written by our father. He completed the manuscript before he fell sick,” Sharmistha said.
‘The Presidential Years’ is Pranab Mukherjee’s fourth volume of memoirs recollecting the challenges he had to face during his stint as the President. He has compared the working styles of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh with incumbent PM Narendra Modi. In one of the excerpts that garnered much media attention, Pranab presented a critical view of the Congress party. The congress veteran who died in August earlier this year, in his book has made some severely critical references to Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh.
