Opinion

A Gathering Feud

Mamata never forgave Pranab for opposing her bid to become the Bengal Youth Congress chief

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A Gathering Feud
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Pranab Mukherjee once told me that Bengalis were like crabs. If you put a bunch of them in a basket, you didn’t have to bother to cover it with a lid, for if one of them tried to climb out, others were sure to pull it down. Now, it looks like the joke has been played on Pranab himself.

Mamata’s opposition to Pranab as a presidential candidate has more to do with her personal dislike for him. Although on the face of it, the two of them share a cordial relationship, she never had a good word to say about him, although it was Pranab who ensured that she contested for the Lok Sabha in 1984 on the Congress ticket. Mamata never forgave him for opposing her bid to become the Bengal Youth Congress president. Then there are other slights, perceived or otherwise. When she was in the Union cabinet, Mamata is said to have found herself at the receiving end of Pranab’s mercurial temper on several occasions. Finally, Pranab’s stubborn refusal to treat West Bengal as a special case placed her in an awkward situation.

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While Mamata doesn’t trust him, she is much more transparent. But she is also vindictive and remembers who has helped her and who has used her. This is her way of getting back at him.
Pranab is not quite known for his benevolence. He has many good qualities but putting others’ interests before his own is not one of them. Barkat (Ghani Khan Choudhury) used to tell me how Pranab often tried to block his projects because he envied him. Indira Gandhi, who was close to both, had apparently said, “For drafting, depend on Pranab. For working, depend on Barkat”.

I first saw Pranab in the 1960s, when he was an office secretary at Bangla Congress. He looked quite ordinary. But he had stature and when he went to Delhi, he took to smoking pipes. That gave him a kind of distinguished look, which he nurtured.

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Pranab is extraordinarily sharp and has an exceptional memory. But, possibly, his obsession with himself meant he has been bypassed for posts like the Union home minister, leave alone PM. I remember him telling me once, “I’m Bengali, I don’t have a base in Delhi; why would they make me PM?”

Pranab and I didn’t see eye to eye. I had written a piece in which I wrote about him, “A rolling stone gathers no moss”. He didn’t like it. I also wrote a critical piece on his wife’s travel to Europe on government expense.

So, we were not on speaking terms, but, in 1995, we found ourselves travelling on the same flight. My daughter was very ill with post-natal complications. I was very disturbed. A common friend was also in the same flight. He asked me what the matter was. I told him. He promptly went and told Pranab, who then asked him to tell me, “Just because we are not talking to each other, he need not worry. His daughter is like my daughter.”

Subsequently, he arranged to have my daughter admitted to one of Delhi’s best hospitals and referred her to one of the best surgeons in the country. It is because of him that my daughter received the best possible treatment. I am eternally grateful to him for that.

As told to Dola Mitra

Tarun Ganguly is former Chief of Bureau of The Telegraph

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