The final volume of Pranab Mukherjee's memoirs has become a bone of contention between his children. The former president's son, Abhijit Mukherjee has asked publishing house Rupa to stop the publication of his father's book for now. Meanwhile, Abhijit's sister Sharmistha Mukherjee has requested her brother not to hinder the book's publication. This feud is taking place days after Rupa announced the launch of final volume of Pranab Mukherjee's memoir.
Abhijit has said in a series of tweets that he would like to inspect the memoir before it is published. He said that some of the excerpts that are floating around in the media are motivated.
"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 are already floating in certain media platforms without my written consent," tweeted Mukherjee to the publishers.
"Since my father is no more, I being his son want to go through the contents of the final copy of the book before its publication as I believe, had my father been alive today, he too would have done the same. Therefore, I being his son request you to immediately stop its publication without my written consent till I go through its contents! I have already sent you a detailed letter in this regard which will reach you soon!" said Mukherjee.
A few hours after the tweets, Sharmistha slammed her brother on Twitter for trying to create "unnecessary hurdles" in the publication of her father's memoirs. "I, daughter of the author of the memoir 'The Presidential Years', request my brother @ABHIJIT_LS not to create any unnecessary hurdles in the publication of the last book written by our father. He completed the manuscript before he fell sick," Sharmistha said in a series of tweets.
She also wrote that any attempt to halt the publication of her father's memoirs would result in the greatest disservice "to our departed father". "The views expressed by him are his own & no one should try to stop it from being published for any cheap publicity," she wrote
She even berated Abhijit for incorrectly naming the book. "Btw bro, the title of the book is 'The Presidential Years', not 'The Presidential Memoirs' (sic)," she wrote.
Rupa had released excerpts of The Presidential Years on Friday. Mukherjee had written in the book, "Some members of the Congress have theorised that, had I become the PM in 2004, the party might have averted the 2014 Lok Sabha drubbing. Though I don't subscribe to this view, I do believe that the party's leadership lost political focus after my elevation as president. While Sonia Gandhi was unable to handle the affairs of the party, Dr Singh's prolonged absence from the House put an end to any personal contact with other MPs."
He also compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his successor Manmohan Singh. "While Dr Singh was preoccupied with saving the coalition, which took a toll on governance, Modi seemed to have employed a rather autocratic style of governance during his first term, as seen by the bitter relationship among the government, the legislature and the judiciary. Only time will tell if there is a better understanding on such matters in the second term of this government," he wrote.
The book The Presidential Years is scheduled to release in January.
Also read: 'Party leadership lost focus': Pranab Mukherjee blames Sonia, Manmohan for 2014 defeat in memoir