When Congress “humiliated” Pranab Mukherjee and then welcomed him back

medium nocaption120518449Thirty-nine years ago, on the evening of April 26, 1986, Pranab Mukherjee sat in the basement study of his heavily fortified Greater Kailash bungalow in New Delhi, aware that he had been shunted out from the Grand Old Party.Once the second-most powerful man in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet and her most trusted political aide, Mukherjee was now almost an overnight political pariah. The Congress Working Committee had expelled him in what many saw as a calculated political move.The announcement, however, was subdued. Plastic bombs had reportedly exploded inside his home. His wife, Suvra, had been nearly run off the road by a truck. One of his Maruti's had been stolen, doused in kerosene, set aflame, and left near Mehrauli with an unidentified body nearby. A few days earlier, a torch had been placed under his parked car. Ominous phone calls warned his wife: “Your husband knows too much. He is visiting West Bengal too much. If he doesn’t stop talking, you’ll be a widow.” 120513729Mukherjee later told The Illustrated Weekly of India in an interview that the attacks had become “part of the atmosphere” around him. “There were incidents no one could explain,” he said. “This was the price I was paying for knowing too much, for not staying silent.”Why was Pranab a target?At the time of his expulsion, Mukherjee was one of the most senior politicians in the Congress, credited with helping stabilise India’s economy as finance minister and known for his shrewd political acumen. Yet, by the spring of 1986, two years after Indira Gandhi’s assassination, he had become a perceived threat to Rajiv Gandhi’s emerging political order.The official allegation, as reported in The Times of India on April 28, 1986, was that Mukherjee was “instigating revolt” within the party and trying to “create a parallel organisation.” The Congress Working Committee, in a meeting chaired by Rajiv Gandhi and attended by top leaders, expelled him along with three others — Satyapratim Misra, AP Sharma and RK Mehrotra — for “indulging in anti-party activities.”According to party insiders, Mukherjee was accused of encouraging dissent among MPs, holding closed-door meetings, and seeking to build a faction within the party. He had been travelling extensively in West Bengal and other states, reportedly meeting disgruntled party workers. One Congress MP alleged that Mukherjee had been asking colleagues to “prepare for changes.”Sibte Razi, then AICC(I) general secretary, claimed the action was based on evidence that the four were “trying to divide the party” after being denied positions of power. The suspensions came after days of speculation and a string of anonymous briefings to the press about “disciplinary action” being considered.What did Pranab Mukherjee know?In a long and revealing interview with (late) Pritish Nandy, the editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India, published on April 27, 1986, Mukherjee broke his silence. He described being “marginalised” and “humiliated,” not just removed from power but made to feel expendable. “I didn’t even know till the last minute that I was being dropped from the cabinet,” he said. “Even when they dropped me from the Congress Working Committee, no one bothered to inform me. The slightest act of politeness was not extended to me.” 120514166He was not even served a formal notice before being expelled. “I heard it from journalists,” he later recalled. “No one in the party had the decency to call. That’s what hurt the most.”Mukherjee, who had entered politics through the Bangla Congress and been mentored by Ajoy Mukherjee, rose rapidly once he aligned with the Congress in 1972. After a stint in the Rajya Sabha, he was inducted into the Union Cabinet and was considered one of the few who could challenge — or at least interpret — Indira Gandhi’s will.As commerce minister, then finance minister, he was controversial but considered effective. But in the aftermath of Indira’s assassination in October 1984, he became a target. Mukherjee was accused — wrongly, he insisted — of trying to stake a claim to the Prime Minister’s chair in the immediate hours after her death. “That was a lie, a blatant lie,” he told The Illustrated Weekly. “Rajiv Gandhi knows that I was with him during that crucial time. There was absolutely no reason and no opportunity for me to stake a claim. In fact, it was I who immediately proposed that Rajiv Gandhi should be made Prime Minister.”He said it was a whisper campaign. “This was a canard spread against me by some members of his inner coterie who were determined to make Rajiv Gandhi lose faith in me. It was a cunning and strategic move to get me out.”Far from being politically finished, Mukherjee emerged in 1986 as the most prominent dissident within the Congress (I). A poll conducted by the Weekly found that in six major Indian cities, Mukherjee ranked among the top four choices to replace Rajiv Gandhi. In Calcutta, he topped the list.The charges and his defenceMukherjee was often linked to powerful businessmen, Dhirubhai Ambani and Swraj Paul, and accused of using the finance ministry to curry favours. But he countered, “I have no friends. I made no friends during my days in power. I stayed away from all non-official events. I believed in access, not influence.”On political funding, he said: “Can you name me one country or one government that doesn’t need cash to fund its elections? Any government that says it’s not taking money is obviously lying.” Still, he added, “That was not my job. Others may have done it. I didn’t.”He also forcefully defended Indira Gandhi’s legacy. “She never took money. People can live with what they choose to believe. But I can tell you, clearly and unequivocally, that Mrs Gandhi was not corrupt. She never took money. Those who accuse her of such misdemeanours should themselves be investigated.”In West Bengal, where Mukherjee began rebuilding his base, he was viewed not as a relic but as a returning power broker. His refusal to break from the Congress — despite being humiliated — was a strategic choice. “We don’t believe in destroying a national institution like the Congress,” he said.He remained deeply critical of the party’s direction under Rajiv Gandhi. “Not a single political issue was discussed by the Congress Working Committee through 1985,” he said. “The organisation is losing touch with the people. That worries many of us.” medium120518412How Pranab rose from the ashesMukherjee, even in exile, played the long game. He met with opposition leaders like George Fernandes, attended conclaves of party dissenters, travelled widely and gave speeches — but stayed within reach of the Congress fold.He launched the Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress (RSC) in West Bengal, where he remained politically active and popular, especially among the Bengali intelligentsia. But the party was modest in scale and lacked national ambition — a deliberate decision, perhaps, on his part. “I was convinced that the Congress remained the only national political platform. Weakening it, even in anger, would be politically disastrous,” he would later write.In 1988, following political realignments and the decline of the anti-Rajiv front, the RSC merged back into the Congress. Mukherjee was rehabilitated by PV Narasimha Rao after the 1991 general elections. Reportedly, Rao, himself a Congress outsider-turned-insider, saw in Mukherjee a valuable asset. He appointed him deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, and later made him external affairs minister.Mukherjee went on to hold almost every major portfolio — defence, external affairs, finance — under both Rao and UPA Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He was seen as the government’s chief negotiator during complex legislative and political negotiations.In 2012, the long arc of his political rehabilitation culminated in his elevation to the presidency, becoming the 13th President of India.Even as he wandered the political wilderness, Mukherjee had said: “All I have to do is wait. Quietly. For events to bring me back.” History proved him right.Research by Rajesh Sharma