'Is it a crime to be ambitious?' Pranab Mukherjee's daughter questions Sonia Gandhi's 'shock'

Former President Pranab Mukherjee's daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee has questioned why Congress leader Sonia Gandhi was "shocked" by her father's ambition to become Prime Minister. She asked whether anyone outside the Gandhi-Nehru family was not allowed to aspire to the country's top political office.

Reacting to Gandhi's revelations in her memoir Belonging: A Journey of Love, Sharmistha on Tuesday said her father had earned his political standing through decades of hard work and experience, not through "dynastic entitlements".

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"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 asked in a post on X.

Sharmistha recalled once asking her father whether he wanted to become Prime Minister. His response, she said, was that "any politician worth his salt has this ambition".

"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 said.

Taking a swipe at the Gandhi family, Sharmistha questioned whether Sonia was surprised because someone outside the political dynasty had expressed such an ambition.

"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 the Gandhi-Nehru family could even dare to nurture such an ambition and furthermore dared to 'hint' it to her?" she asked.

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What Sonia Gandhi wrote about Pranab's PM ambitions

In her memoir, Sonia Gandhi recalled a 2010 conversation in which Pranab Mukherjee suggested a possible change in the country's leadership. At the time, Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister and the Congress-led UPA was in its second term.

"He (Pranab) had developed serious differences with the Finance Minister P Chidambaram, and on one occasion, in 2010, I think after expressing his frustration, he shocked me with the suggestion that perhaps it was time for a change at the top, which I understood as a hint of his long-held desire to become prime minister," Gandhi wrote.

"I gently changed the subject, and though he may have been disappointed, he never made me feel he held it against me," she added.

Gandhi also recalled that Congress subsequently nominated Mukherjee as the UPA's presidential candidate in 2012. He won the election and served as President until 2017.

Responding to Gandhi's account, Sharmistha said her father never held the incident against Sonia or anyone else.

"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 said. "He was a pragmatic person with deep understanding. He understood her reasons and insecurities that all human beings are prone to."

Pranab Mukherjee, who held several key Cabinet portfolios during his long political career, passed away in August 2020.