‘Is it crime to be ambitious’: Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter hits back at Sonia Gandhi

Former President Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee on Tuesday defended her father’s ambition to become Prime Minister after Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi recalled in her memoir how he had once hinted at his desire for the top post.

Reacting to Sonia Gandhi’s account of a conversation with Pranab Mukherjee in 2010, Sharmistha questioned why his ambition should have come as a surprise, arguing that it was backed by decades of political and administrative experience, hard work and intellectual ability.

Taking to X, she wrote: “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 & governance, hard work & a brilliant mind?”

She also recalled asking her father whether he wanted to become Prime Minister. “Once, when asked by me whether he wanted to become PM, he very candidly answered that 'any politician worth his salt has this ambition',” she said.

Sharmistha emphasised that her father had come from a humble background and earned every position through merit and hard work, rather than dynastic privilege.

“My father came from a very humble background. Whatever he achieved in his life was through sheer merit & hard work. There was no one to serve him positions, including PM-ship, on a platter due to dynastic entitlements,” she wrote.

Questioning Sonia Gandhi’s reaction to her father’s alleged hint, she added: “If a well-deserving person harbours ambition to become Prime Minister, what's wrong with that, unless Sonia ji was 'shocked' by the fact that anyone outside the Gandhi-Nehru family could even dare to nurture such an ambition & furthermore dared to 'hint' it to her?”

Sharmistha also responded to Sonia Gandhi’s observation that Pranab Mukherjee had never held the episode against her. Referring to her father’s diaries and conversations with him, she said he had not harboured resentment towards Sonia Gandhi or anyone else.

“In this same context, I read that she said she felt 'he never held it against me'. From what I read in his diaries & 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.

Describing her father as a pragmatic person with a deep understanding of people, she added that he understood Sonia Gandhi’s reasons and the insecurities that people could be prone to.

In her memoir, Belonging: A Journey Of Love, released on Tuesday, Sonia Gandhi recalled a conversation with Pranab Mukherjee in 2010, when he suggested that perhaps it was time for a "change at the top".

The former Congress president wrote that Mukherjee had developed serious differences with the then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. During one interaction, after expressing his frustration, he made the remark, which she interpreted as an indirect indication of his long-standing ambition to become Prime Minister.

"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," she wrote.

She added that she gently changed the subject and, although Mukherjee may have been disappointed, he never made her feel that he held it against her.

Sonia Gandhi described Mukherjee as a leader with an "encyclopaedic mind", well-versed in the Congress party’s history, world affairs and philosophical questions. She also noted that he could sometimes be short-tempered.

Mukherjee had left the Congress in 1984 after Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister and went on to form his own party. He returned to the Congress in 1989. Despite holding several key ministerial portfolios in successive Congress governments, Sonia Gandhi wrote that he continued to believe his seniority and experience made him a natural candidate for the top post.

The Congress nominated Mukherjee as its candidate for President in 2012, and he went on to become the country’s 13th President.

In her memoir, Sonia Gandhi also recalled several senior Congress leaders who supported and advised her during her early years in the party. They included former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Arjun Singh, Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, Madhavrao Scindia, Oscar Fernandes, A.K. Antony, Mohsina Kidwai, Sheila Dikshit and Ambika Soni.

She described Arjun Singh as a wise and experienced leader who listened to different views before summing up discussions. Dasmunsi, whom she remembered as a close colleague and an astute politician, often helped her with facts and figures during parliamentary debates and stepped in to calm tensions with the Opposition.

Gandhi also recalled how Scindia, her deputy leader of the Opposition, would come to her assistance whenever she appeared nervous or uncertain in Parliament. She said the early deaths of Scindia, who died in a plane accident, and Dasmunsi, who passed away after a prolonged illness, had left her deeply saddened.

She remembered Fernandes as a trusted colleague who remained accessible to party workers, and Antony as a wise, down-to-earth Gandhian who always kept the party’s interests in mind.

Among the women leaders, Gandhi praised Kidwai for her knowledge of Uttar Pradesh politics and recalled her close rapport with Dikshit, with whom she shared interests in handlooms, music and the arts. She said she had backed Dikshit for the post of Delhi Congress president in 1998, a decision that proved right as she went on to serve as Chief Minister for three consecutive terms.

Gandhi also recalled Soni’s long association with the Congress and said her experience and knowledge had been particularly helpful during her own early days in the organisation.

Published by HarperCollins India, Belonging: A Journey Of Love traces Sonia Gandhi’s journey from her childhood in post-war Italy and her relationship with Rajiv Gandhi at Cambridge to her life in India and the personal losses that shaped her, including the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.

(With agencies' inputs)