Stop memoir, Pranab Mukherjee’s son tells publisher; gets trolled by sister

A verbal spat has broken out between the children of former President Pranab Mukherjee over the release of his upcoming memoir ‘The Presidential Years,’ teasers of which were recently published by publication house Rupa.

While his son and former Lok Sabha member Abhijit asked the publisher not to release the book without his written consent, the former President’s daughter Sharmishtha asked her brother not to create “unnecessary hurdles” and stop the memoir’s release for “cheap publicity”.

The row comes days after excerpts from Mukherjee’s book – the fourth and final part of his memoirs – was released by Rupa. In one of the excerpts, Mukherjee blames Congress president Sonia Gandhi and then prime minister Manmohan Singh for the party’s electoral debacle in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Taking to Twitter, Abhijit, a Congress leader, said the excerpts were “motivated” and were floating in the media without his consent.

“I , the Son of the author of the Memoir ” The Presidential Memoirs ” request you to kindly stop the publication of the memoir as well as motivated excerpts which is already floating in certain media platforms without my written consent,” he tweeted.

In a couple of tweets Abhijit asserted that he needs to go through the contents of the final copy of the book before it is published.

His sister Sharmishtha, also a Congress leader, immediately hit back with a rejoinder, asking Abhijit “not to create any unnecessary hurdles” in the publication of the book.

Stating that Mukherjee had completed the manuscript of the book before falling sick, Sharmishtha said the final draft contains the Congress veteran’s handwritten notes and comments which have been strictly adhered to.

“The final draft contains my dads’ hand written notes & comments that have been strictly adhered to. The views expressed by him are his own & no one should try to stop it from being published for any cheap publicity. That would be the greatest disservice to our departed father.”

To drive home her point, Sharmishtha told her brother that he has got the title of their father’s memoir wrong, in his tweet.

“Btw bro, the title of the book is ‘The Presidential Years’, not ‘The Presidential Memoirs,” she tweeted.

The book which is looking at January release would recount the days of Pranab Mukherjee during his time as President.