Unshackled from the constraints of office and back on the “speaking circuit”, the former President, Pranab Mukherjee, is offering interesting insights to much of what he was witness during his long years in public life. Yet he is too much of a statesman to “tell tales out of school” or let the proverbial skeletons tumble out of his closet.

Significantly enough, the “tell all” came from another seasoned stalwart at the release of The Coalition Years, the third volume of Pranab-da’s memoirs: that “reluctant politician” Manmohan Singh confessed that Mukherjee would have made a better Prime Minister. While that provoked many an embarrassed chuckle, even one from Sonia Gandhi who was present, those more adept at reading between the political lines interpreted Dr Singh’s comment as confirmation, perhaps inadvertent, of what they had long-suspected ~ Mukherjee was by-passed, given the “kick upstairs” essentially to preserve the dynasty in the hope that Rahul Gandhi would attain that key office.

It did not happen in 2014, and while the great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru does have time on his side, it could take a major reversal of political fortunes for a fourth-generation to make it to the PMO. Yet that is not at the heart of the plot that is now unraveling, the “courtesans of the palace” ~ others might describe them as a mafia ~ feared that if Mukherjee became the Prime Minister he would put paid to Rahul’s aspirations. But while achieving that specific objective, the future of the Congress party was seriously jeopardised. It was apparent that when the term of UPA-II was winding down, Dr Singh lacked the stomach for a fight against a resurgent BJP increasingly gravitating towards the leadership of Narendra Modi: ideally Mukherjee was best posited to keep the Congress-led coalition in the running, but the “loyalists” persuaded Sonia Gandhi otherwise, even though the political scenario was vastly different from 2004 when she anointed Dr Singh as a “regent”.

To be fair, Mukherjee has made light of such suggestions but that could be an extreme case of being “politically correct” ~ he has admitted to having once had “ambitions”. The elevation of Mukherjee to Rashtrapati Bhawan was actually the second time that the “dynasty dragoons” had laid him low. He was not just the senior-most minister but highly favoured to take the top slot when Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 but the “loyalists” pitched for Rajiv.

Mukherjee had made his feelings known then, and was excluded from the party. In 2012 he rather quietly left the field open to Rahul ~ who led the party to disaster in 2014, but is favoured to replace Sonia as Congress president in coming days. Will 2019 ensure the permanent eclipse of the party that Mukherjee might have salvaged?