Pranab Mukherjee's son, daughter spar on Twitter over his new book

Late former President and Congress veteran Pranab Mukherjee's last book which is likely to hit the stands in January has led to a public spat between his son Abhijit Mukherjee and daughter Sharmishtha Mukherjee, both of who are senior leaders of the grand old party.

The book The Presidential Years which Mukherjee had completed before his death will be published by Rupa Books. The select excerpts of the book, released by the publishers, show that it will present a critical view of the Congress party and its president Sonia Gandhi.

On Tuesday, Abhijit, a former MP from West Bengal, took to Twitter and asked Roopa Books not to publish the memoir without his written consent. He added that he has sent a detailed letter in this regard to the publishers.

“I , the Son of the author of the Memoir " The Presidential Years " request you to kindly stop the publication of the memoir as well as motivated excerpts which is already floating in certain media platforms without my written consent,” he tweeted.

Abhijit said he wants to go through the contents of the final copy of the book before its publication.

“Since my father is no more , I being his son want to go through the contents of the final copy of the book before its publication as I believe, had my father been alive today , he too would have done the same,” he claimed.

However, Mukherjee's daughter Sharmishtha hit back at her brother and urged him not to create any unnecessary hurdles in publication of the book. She said their father had completed the manuscript before he fell sick.

“I, daughter of the author of the memoir ‘The Presidential Years’, request my brother  Abhijit Mukherjee not to create any unnecessary hurdles in publication of the last book written by our father. He completed the manuscript before he fell sick,” she tweeted.

Sharmishtha said the views expressed by the former president were his own and that no one should try to stop it from being published for any cheap publicity.

“The final draft contains my dads’ hand written notes & comments that have been strictly adhered to. The views expressed by him are his own & no one should try to stop it from being published for any cheap publicity. That would be the greatest disservice to our departed father,” she said.

The new book will recount Mukherjee's fascinating journey from growing up under the flicker of a lamp in a remote village of Bengal to walking the rampart of the Rasthrapati Bhavan as the first citizen of India.

It recollects the challenges he faced in his years as the President including the difficult decisions he had to make and the tightrope walk he had to undertake to ensure that both constitutional propriety and his opinion were taken into consideration.

In the memoir, Mukherjee reveals the relationship he shared with two politically opposed prime ministers during his tenure as the president—Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi.

"While Dr Singh was preoccupied with saving the coalition, which took a toll on governance, Modi seemed to have employed a rather autocratic style of governance during his first term, as seen by the bitter relationship among the government, the legislature and the judiciary," Mukherjee wrote in the book.

He also presents a critical point of view for the Congress party, in which he was a senior leader for over five decades. He candidly refutes the view of leaders of the party, who believed had Mukherjee become the PM in 2004, the party might have averted the 2014 Lok Sabha drubbing.

"Though I don't subscribe to this view, I do believe that the party's leadership lost political focus after my elevation as president. While Sonia Gandhi was unable to handle the affairs of the party, Dr Singh's prolonged absence from the House put an end to any personal contact with other MPs," he wrote.