New Delhi, Oct 18 (DHNS): President Pranab Mukherjee is bringing out the second volume of his much-awaited autobiography in December this year but he warns not to expect “masala” in it.
The second volume, which covers the period from Sanjay Gandhi’s death in 1980 and Narasimha Rao’s defeat in polls in 1996, will hit the stands on December 11, his birthday. The first volume, “The Dramatic Years”, was launched by the Rupa Publications, last year on his birthday.
The second volume will deal with the crucial years in Mukherjee’s political life and is expected to throw more light on the person as well as the period.
“Don’t expect ‘masala’ from me,” the President told journalists accompanying him on way back after the six-day visit to Jordon, Palestine and Israel.
The book is also expected to throw light on what happened in the flight on October 31, 1984 when he accompanied Rajiv Gandhi on a flight back from West Bengal to New Delhi, the day Indira Gandhi was assassinated. His apparent remark that the senior-most minister should become the caretaker prime minister is said to be the reason for his exclusion from Rajiv’s Cabinet and his leaving the party only to return later.
While there are a lot of speculations on what happened on the flight, Mukherjee has never said anything in public or shared much about it in his private circle.
A close aide of the President told Deccan Herald that several “interesting bits”, which would have made headlines, in the first volume were chopped off from the first draft by Mukherjee himself. He is very particular that he is not there to make headlines for the sake of headlines.
“He has told us that certain secrets would die with him and nobody would know about it,” the aide said. Mukherjee is also learnt to be keeping a diary and it is unlikely to see the light of the world during his lifetime, the Presidential aide said.
The first volume had Mukherjee’s remarks on the Emergency where he said it could have been an “avoidable event” and the congress and indira Gnadhipaid a "heavy price for this misadventure".