"What’s there to get ‘shocked’ about?" -- Sharmishta Mukherjee flays Sonia Gandhi and hits back, defending her father Pranab Mukherjee's "ambition"

This is a controversy from an unexpected quarter. Sharmishta Mukherjee flays Sonia Gandhi and hits back, defending her father Pranab Mukherjee's "ambition".  

“What’s there to get ‘shocked’ about? Is it a crime to be ambitious, especially when that ‘ambition’ was supported by decades of experience in politics and governance, hard work and a brilliant mind?” she wrote.

Sonia Gandhi, in her memoir 'Belonging: A Journey of Love', recounted a conversation with Pranab Mukherjee, then Finance Minister, in 2010 that she interpreted as a subtle indication of his desire to become Prime Minister.

Pranab Mukherjee had expressed his displeasure over differences with then P Chidambaram. During the conversation, he reportedly suggested that perhaps “it was time for a change at the top”.

Sonia Gandhi wrote that she understood the remark as a hint about Mukherjee’s long-standing Prime Ministerial ambitions. She said she chose to gently steer the conversation in another direction and added that Mukherjee never subsequently made her feel that he resented her response.  

‘No one served him positions on a platter’: Sharmistha 

“My father came from a very humble background. Whatever he achieved in his life was through sheer merit and hard work. There was no one to serve him positions, including PM-ship, on a platter due to dynastic entitlements,” she wrote.

“If a well-deserving person harbours ambition to become Prime Minister, what’s wrong in that, unless Sonia ji was ‘shocked’ by the fact that anyone outside Gandhi-Nehru family could even dare to nurture such an ambition and furthermore dared to ‘hint’ it to her?” Sharmistha asked.  

Referring to her father’s diaries and personal conversations with him, Sharmistha sought to reassure Gandhi that her father did not harbour any resentment over the matter.

“In this same context, I read that she said she felt ‘he never held it against me’. From what I read in his diaries and whatever conversation he had with me, I would like to reassure her that he DID NOT hold it against her or anyone else,” she wrote.

Describing her father as a pragmatic and understanding individual, she added that he understood Sonia Gandhi’s reasons and recognised that human beings, irrespective of their positions, could be vulnerable to insecurities.

Pranab Mukherjee served as India’s 13th President from 2012 to 2017. Before assuming the constitutional office, he was among the most influential leaders in the Congress-led UPA governments, holding key portfolios such as Finance, Defence and External Affairs. Of course, Pranab did not become Prime Minister; it is also said in political circle that Sonia was against the idea of giving Home portfolio to Pranab Mukherjee.  

In September 2011, Pranab Mukherjee alerted the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that "planted adhesives" and suspected listening devices might have been placed in offices within the Finance Ministry. 

Mukherjee later clarified that the adhesives turned out to be remnants like chewing gum and no hard evidence of active espionage was found.

Mukherjee chose not to report the suspected security breach directly to Home Minister P. Chidambaram or use the Intelligence Bureau (which fell under Chidambaram's Home Ministry) to investigate. Instead, Mukherjee's Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) used a private detective agency to inspect the premises, which fueled public perceptions of a "trust deficit" inside the government.

Chidambaram publicly stated he was completely unaware of the suspected bugging probe and dismissed claims of a "civil war" or deep rift as the work of "hyper-active imaginations". 

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