Sharmistha Mukherjee, daughter of former President Pranab Mukherjee, has criticized the Congress party for inconsistencies in honoring its leaders. She highlighted that after her father’s death in 2020, the Congress did not convene a Congress Working Committee (CWC) condolence meeting. A senior leader had informed her that such meetings were not customary for Presidents. However, she later discovered through her father’s diaries that a CWC meeting was held upon the death of former President K.R. Narayanan, with Pranab Mukherjee himself drafting the condolence message.
Her remarks came in response to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s request for a dedicated memorial for former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who passed away at the age of 92. While supporting the idea of a memorial for Singh, Sharmistha noted that her father had intended to confer the Bharat Ratna upon him during his presidency, but it did not materialize.
The Congress party had expressed concerns over the lack of a designated location for Singh’s cremation and memorial, calling it a deliberate insult to the country’s first Sikh Prime Minister. In response, the Union Home Ministry confirmed that space would be allocated for a memorial and communicated this to Singh’s family and Kharge.
This situation has sparked a broader discussion about the Congress party’s approach to memorializing its leaders, with critics pointing out selective practices in honoring those outside the Nehru-Gandhi family.
