Pranab Mukherjee was aghast at Rahul Gandhi’s ordinance-tearing act in 2013 and said he has all the “arrogance” of his Gandhi-Nehru lineage without their political acumen and that this episode was the “final nail in the coffin” for the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls the subsequent year, a book on the late president says.
“In Pranab, My Father: A Daughter Remembers”, Sharmistha Mukherjee says that her father also told her that “maybe politics wasn’t Rahul’s calling” and his “lack of charisma and political understanding is creating a problem” besides his “frequent disappearing acts”.
On September 27, 2013, Rahul walked into a press conference held by former Cabinet minister and the party’s communication department chief Ajay Maken and vehemently trashed a proposed government ordinance calling it “complete nonsense”, adding that it should be torn. Then taking everyone by surprise, he tore a copy of the ordinance.
