Nepal wanted to merge with India but Nehru rejected the proposal : Claims in Pranab Mukherjee’s book

New Delhi : Former President Pranab Mukherjee’s book ‘The Presidential Years’ has been in the headlines continuously. Pranab Mukherjee’s book makes a shocking claim about former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Mukherjee has claimed that Nepal wanted to merge with India, but former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru turned down King Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah’s proposal to merge Nepal into India. It also said that if there was Indira Gandhi, she would probably never have turned down the offer.

Under the title ‘My Prime Ministers: Different Styles, Different Temperaments’, Chapter 11 of Autobiography ‘The Presidential Years’, Pranab Mukherjee wrote that Raja Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah had proposed to Nehru that he should merge Nepal with India. The province should be made, but the then Prime Minister rejected the proposal. He has further written that if Indira Gandhi were in place of Nehru, she would not have let the occasion go as she did with Sikkim.

Indira Gandhi used to take advantage of the opportunity
Mukherjee wrote that Nehru dealt with Nepal in a very diplomatic manner. After the monarchy replaced Rana rule in Nepal, Nehru played an important role in strengthening democracy. The special thing is that the King of Nepal, Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah suggested to Nehru that Nepal should be made a province of India, but Nehru rejected the offer. He says that Nepal is an independent nation and it should remain so.

Pranab Mukherjee wanted Modi to speak more in Parliament
Pranab Mukherjee wanted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to listen to voices disagreeing with his views and speak more often in Parliament. It was the desire of the former President that Prime Minister Modi should use the Parliament as a platform to spread his ideas and agree with the opposition and inform the country.

According to Mukherjee, the presence of the Prime Minister in Parliament brings about an unprecedented change in the functioning of this institution. In his last memoir ‘The Presidential Years, 2012-2017’, Mukherjee wrote that whether it was Jawaharlal Nehru or Indira Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee or Manmohan Singh, each of these former Prime Ministers made their presence felt on the floor of the House. The book, completed by Pranab Mukherjee before his death last year, was released on Tuesday.

The former President said that Prime Minister Modi is now in his second term. He should draw inspiration from former Prime Ministers and show leadership through his greater presence in Parliament to avoid situations like repeated parliamentary crisis in his first term. Mukherjee said that during the UPA’s tenure, he used to solve various issues by keeping constant contact with the Leader of Opposition and senior leaders of both UPA and NDA.