Book on Mallikarjun Kharge's political journey to be launched by Sonia Gandhi on Nov 29

New Delhi: Articles by Jyotiraditya Scindia and Shashi Tharoor, reminiscence of Anil Swaroop on how he was retained as Labour Secretary and CPI(M) leader Elamaram Kareem recalling the support 12 MPs received from Mallikarjun Kharge when they decided not to apologise for revoking their suspension form part of a book on the Congress president completing 50 years in electoral politics.

75 friends, admirers and colleagues – from Sonia Gandhi to Ramnath Kovind, Manmohan Singh, M Venkiah Naidu, Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar – have penned chapters in the book Mallikarjun Kharge: Political Engagement with Compassion, Justice and Inclusive Development to be released on Wednesday.

Nitin Gadkari, Sudip Bandhyopadhyay, SM Krishna, DK Shivakumar, P Chidambaram, KC Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala as well as a number of bureaucrats, including former Karnataka DGP DV Guruprasad, also write about ‘polyglot’ Kharge’s administrative skills, his growth from the grassroots to a national leader and his politics.

While Sonia emphasises Kharge’s efforts to “empower the weakest and the most vulnerable”, Rahul highlights the Congress president’s “rare quality” to “put the organisation above his personal interest”, which has “inspired many to fight a good fight”.

Tharoor, who fought against Kharge in the Congress presidential election writes what many vouch for in the volume, “most national leaders tend to be Delhi-centric, limiting their view of the country to the lens that Delhi provides. But Kharge-ji’s tremendous local experience in the northern regions of Karnataka provided the Centre with a plethora of unique and important insights”.

Former IAS officer Swaroop recalls how Kharge ensured that he remained as Labour Secretary despite transfer orders being issued to enable the seamless implementation of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), an “unprecedented cashless and paperless health insurance scheme.

He writes Kharge expressed his intention of not relieving him but Swaroop does not do what he did to ensure that “I stayed back to serve the poorest of the poor by way of this scheme.”

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha floor leader Elamaram Kareem recalls that Kharge, whom he finds a pro-poor and pro-labourer, gave 12 MPs who were suspended “illegally” from Rajya Sabha “unflinching support” when “we took the firm stand that ‘come what may, we would not apologise to get back to the House’”.

Former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan writes that Kharge always promoted young leaders and cited an instance where he chose a young BJP MP to assist him for an international conference on parliamentarians.

Mahajan said she insisted that Kharge should go for the conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association but he tried to wriggle out saying youngsters should be given opportunity, citing that he had travelled to many countries.

He also feels that he needs to prepare a lot, for which he doesn’t have time. However, Mahajan insisted that he could take the assistance of a young MP and suggested the names of some Congress MPs.

“To this he finally said, ‘let’s see’. After two days, I again approached Kharge-ji asking him if he had thought of a suitable young MP from his party who was studious and also interested. Much to my surprise, Kharge-ji took the name of an MP belonging to another party. And you will be surprised that he had recommended a young BJP MP saying that he was ‘studious and made notes too’,” she writes.

“...This is a sign of mature politics – one that recognises the qualities of opponents and gives them a chance, and accepts their good points. This is how our Mallikarjun Kharge-ji is – simple, sincere, straightforward, upright, hardworking, frank, multilinguist,” she added.