‘If Pranab Mukherjee was made PM, Manmohan Singh as President in 2012…’: Mani Shankar Aiyar in tell-all book

Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has said that Pranab Mukherjee should have been given the reins of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-II government in 2012 and Manmohan Singh be elevated as the President. 

In his book ’A Maverick in Politics', the 83-year-old leader claimed that if the step was taken at that time, the UPA would not have suffered a “paralysis of governance”.

According to Aiyar, who served as a minister in UPA-I, claimed that the Congress' decision to retain Singh as the PM and shift Mukherjee to the Rashtrapati Bhawan "doomed" any prospects the party might have had to form UPA-III.

ALSO READ: ‘My political career made, unmade by Gandhis’, says Congress veteran Mani Shankar Aiyar

"In 2012, the prime minister (Manmohan Singh) underwent operations for multiple coronary bypasses. He never quite recovered physically. It slowed him down and this showed up in governance. As for the party, there was no official announcement about the Congress president's health when she took ill at about the same time as the PM," Aiyar was quoted by PTI as saying.

“It soon became clear that in both the offices --“ the PM's and the party president's -- there was stasis, a distinct absence of governance, while several crises, particularly Anna Hazare's 'India Against Corruption' movement, were either not handled effectively or not handled at all,” he added.

"The choice of Rashtrapati: Manmohan Singh or Pranab Mukherjee. Personally, I was of the view that Pranab Mukherjee should have been given the reins of the government and Dr Manmohan Singh elevated to President of India when the office of Rashtrapati presented an opening in 2012," the Congress leader said.

"This was principally because we needed a very active PM in good health and with the energy to lead the government (Pranab Da) and a person of high distinction who had served his country exceptionally well (Dr Singh) to preside over the nation. Pranab's memoirs indicate that this was in fact contemplated," Aiyar pointed.

‘Pranab said Sonia gave vague impression of considering Singh as presidential nominee’: Aiyar

Mani Shankar Aiyar quoted ex-president Pranab Mukherjee who in his memoir said that when Sonia Gandhi was 'on holiday in the Kausambi hills', she had given the 'vague impression' that she was considering making Singh the 'presidential nominee'.

"This led Pranab to wonder 'if she selected Singh for the presidential office, she may choose me as the prime minister'. For reasons to which neither I, nor it seems anyone else, was made privy, the decision was taken to retain Dr Manmohan Singh as PM and shift Pranab Mukherjee upstairs as Rashtrapati," the Congress veteran said.

“That, in my view, doomed any prospects the Congress might have had to form UPA-III. While the Indian media slammed the government, Time magazine ran a very damaging cover story that described Dr Singh as a 'Do Nothing' Prime Minister,” he recalled in the book.
 

‘Pranab’s left-wing reputation would've disturbed business community': Aiyar

According to Aiyar, Pranab Mukherjee's "Left-wing reputation" would have “disturbed the business community and the Americans if he were made PM, but there was no one more experienced than him.”

"I hazard the view that if this obvious step had been taken, we would not have gone into a paralysis of governance and thus opened the door to the worst excesses of Hindutva in the general elections of 2014," he added.

(With PTI inputs)