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The late former President Pranab Mukherjee said that there was no need to “over-publicise” the 2016 surgical strikes. Sharing his opinion on several aspects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s various foreign policy measures, Mukherjee said that Modi’s surprise visit to Lahore to attend the birthday of the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter was “unnecessary and uncalled for, given the conditions that prevailed in India-Pakistan relations.” He wrote these lines in his in the fourth volume of his autobiography ‘The Presidential Years: 2012-2017’
Mukherjee also stated that it would be in India’s interests to continue engaging with Imran Khan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Commenting on the surgical strikes, which were carried out almost 10 days after the Uri terror attack where 18 Indian army soldiers were killed, Mukherjee said that such strikes by Indian forces across the border have been “normal military operations in response to Pakistan’s continued aggression.” However, “there is really no need to over-publicise them,” adding that “we gained nothing by over-talking on these operations.”
Mukherjee, heaped praises on some of the initiatives of PM Modi. “One could expect the unexpected from Modi,” Mukherjee wrote, “because he had come with no ideological foreign policy baggage.” Further, he commended Modi’s initiative of inviting SAARC leaders to his swearing in and hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping twice.
“When Narendra Modi took over as PM, he had absolutely no experience in foreign affairs. As the CM of Gujarat, he had visited some countries, but those visits were limited to engaging for the good of his state, and had little to do with domestic or global foreign policies. Foreign policy was, therefore, a truly uncharted territory for him. But he did what no PM had attempted before: invite the heads of government/state of SAARC nations to his oath-taking ceremony in 2014—and this included Pakistan’s then PM, Nawaz Sharif. His out-of-thebox initiative took several foreign policy veterans by surprise,” Mukherjee wrote in his memoirs.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi must listen to the dissenting voices and speak more often in Parliament, using it as a forum to disseminate his views to convince the Opposition and inform the nation. According to Mukherjee, the mere physical presence of the prime minister in Parliament makes a tremendous difference to the functioning of this institution.
“Whether it was Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee or Manmohan Singh, each of these former PMs made their presence felt on the floor of the House.
“PM Modi, now in his second term, must take inspiration from his predecessors and provide visible leadership, through his enhanced presence in Parliament to avoid situations that had precipitated the parliamentary crisis we witnessed in the first term,” Mukherjee wrote in his memoir “The Presidential Years, 2012-2017” which he completed before his death last year.
Mukherjee described the emergence of Imran Khan as Pakistan’s Prime Minister as “an interesting development”. He added, “Though we have to wait and watch how Imran evolves, particularly with respect to issues concerning India, I personally feel that India must engage with him. He is part of a new breed of politicians, is born in the post-Independence period and does not carry the old baggage of pre-partition politics that the Muslim League personified.”
Mukherjee said he would have ‘ensured’ Mamata Banerjee’s continuation in the UPA-II coalition if he had continued as finance minister. In 2012, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee withdrew her support from the UPA-II as she wanted complete withdrawal of the decision on FDI, raising the cap on subsidised LPG from six to 12 cylinders and reduction of diesel hike.
