Pranab was better qualified to be PM, says Dr Manmohan

DAINIK NATION BUREAU

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has earned fame that he speaks less,  has surprised everyone today by acknowledging that former president Pranab Mukherjee had every reason to feel grievance while he had no choice when congress president Sonia Gandhi asked him to become Prime Minister of India in 2004. With this comment he forced everyone including AICC president Sonia Gandhi to laugh and later huge round of applause with laughter echoed at the Nehru Memorial museum and library, Delhi as if they were desperate to listen from him for long. Even Mukherjee was looking surprised as a taciturn Singh made the revelation

By saying these words from public forum, which organized to launch the mukherjee’s third political memoir volume published by Rupa India entitled “the coaltion years:1996-2012” former PM Dr Singh broke silence on the historic development. He voiced the heartburn gandhi’s decision caused Mukherjee, then senior most congress leader and someone who had served the congress working committee between 1978-2012 when he became president of India. The book is a sequel to the previous two volumes which Mukherjee written during his stay at Rashtrapatibhawan. Those volumes were not released formally on account of Mukherjee serving office.

“Pranab Mukherjee was the most distinguished colleague. He had every reason to feel grievance, he was better qualified to become PM. That did not happen but he also knew that I had no choice in the matter. I’m glad it did not affect our abiding friendship, which will last till we both live” Dr singh added