Pranab’s tactic

At the launch of the third volume of former president Pranab Mukherjee’s autobiography, Communist Party of India-Marxist chief Sitaram Yechury reminisced about their relationship. Yechury commented about how Mukherjee ( pictured) was prone to losing his temper and that initially the Left leader would get a tad nonplussed when that happened. Eventually, Yechury said, he realised that was a tactic Mukherjee employed when he inherently agreed with an argument, but was unwilling to show that. When Mukherjee lost his temper, the other person found his or her train of thought derailed and the conversation moved to some other issue.