President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday utilised a book launch occasion to convey their mutual admiration for each other, with the former maintaining that their relation remained unaffected despite their “divergence of views” at times and that the two “acted in close cooperation”.
The President’s remarks followed Modi’s praise of him in which the Prime Minister said that he was fortunate that he could hold Mukherjee’s hand while trying to settle in Delhi, and that there was never a meeting between them in the last three years when the President did not treat him like a son.. “Mere jeevan ka bahut bada saubhagya raha ki mujhe Pranab Da ki ungli pakad ke Delhi ki zindagi mein apne aapko set karne ki suvidha mili,” Modi said at the launch of the book titled President Pranab Mukherjee - A Statesman at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
The President received the first copy of the book from the Prime Minister who formally released it. The book is a photo essay on the 13th Presidency and is brought out by The Statesman Group.
For his part, the President said, “Surely there have been divergences of views but we have been able to keep divergences only to ourselves, they didn’t affect relations between the President and the Prime Minister.”
“I take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude and appreciation to the Prime Minister. We have acted in close co-operation,” Mukherjee maintained.
Mukherjee, who retires on July 24, confessed that he was initially unwilling when the idea of the photo essay was first suggested to him and wondered about the benefit it would have since the engagements of the President are all in public domain. But he was convinced later by the publishers that it was necessary to archive important events for posterity as the day-to-day news coverage of the Presidency has currency only till the next headline comes along. He said he was also persuaded to agree by the fact that a request had come from a newspaper that he literally grew up with as a Bengali and most of the time they had agreed to disagree.
Earlier, extolling the President’s virtues as a person, Modi said the Presidency is much more than protocol and through the photographs in the book, we see the humane side of our President and we feel proud. “It is my privilege that I got to work with the Honourable President,” the PM said.
While Modi recalled that during the Emergency he got to work with leaders and workers of very different ideologies, he said in his view “we can be more history conscious as a society. We can preserve aspects of our history much better”.
Modi got emotional while talking about the President. The Prime Minister appreciated his time spent working with the President and lauded his mentorship. “like a father figure, Pranab Da has guided me. He would tell me, Modiji please take adequate rest, take care of your health,” the PM said.