Only non-BJP leaders invited to Pranab Mukherjee’s autobiography release today

The third volume of former President Pranab Mukherjee’s autobiography ‘The Coalition Years -1996-2012’ will be released on Friday in the presence of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and leaders of non-BJP parties.

Curiously, the invitation for the book launch function has listed the names of CPIM leader Sitaram Yechury, CPI leader S. Sudhakar Reddy, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra, DMK leader Kanimozhi besides Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi.

However, it does not have any name from the BJP or the NDA. As President, Mukherjee had good equations with the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.

The book being published by Rupa Publications tracks Mukherjee’s journey from 1996 and explores the highs and lows that characterized 16 years of “one of the most tumultuous periods in the nation's political history”, according to the synopsis.

The book has an account of the larger governance phenomenon in India -- coalition politics “as seen through the eyes of one of the chief architects of the post-Congress era of Indian politics”. Mukherjee was an active participant in the contemporary developments that reshaped the course of the country’s political, economic and social destiny.