Pranab Mukherjee- Former President of India

 Pranab Mukherjee

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On 31stAugust 2020, Pranab Mukherjee, the former President of India passed away, after battling a long illness. He served as an Indian politician and government official.  He was an inspiration to many. He will be remembered by every Indian for his contribution in Indian Politics. Let’s have a look on the contribution of our veteran President Pranab Kumar Mukherjee:

He belonged to a Bengali family and his father Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee was active in the Indian independence movement and was a member of West Bengal Legislative Council between 1952 and 1964 as a representative of the Indian National Congress; he was a member of AICC. His mother was Rajlakshmi Mukherjee. He was married to Suvra Mukherjee. The couple had two sons and a daughter. Suvra Mukherjee died on 18th August 2015 due to respiratory problems. He completed his education from the Suri Vidyasagar College (then affiliated with the University of Calcutta) in Suri. He then completed an advanced degree in history and political science as well as a law degree from the university. In 1963, he had joined a college near Calcutta as professor and he also joined weekly publication as editor. 

Mukherjee’s political career started in 1969, when he won a seat in the Rajya Sabha (upper house) of the Indian parliament as a member of the Bangla Congress, which soon merged with the Congress Party. In 1973, he worked under the leadership of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and also became minister in her cabinet. He served as Finance Minister of India in 1982-84 and also as the Leader of the House in the Rajya  Sabha in 1980-85. In 1986, Mukherjee formed his own party ,  Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress because after assassination  of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi  Mukherjee feel sidelined during the premiership of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (son of Indira Gandhi), so he formed his own party, also in his view Rajiv Gandhi was not a rightful successor of his mother. He considered himself as the rightful successor to Indira Gandhi. But in 1989, after reaching a consensus with Rajiv Gandhi, Mukherjee had merged his party back into Congress. Mukherjee’s political career took a turn when in1991,  P. V. Narasimha Rao became Prime Minister (following Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination). In 1991, Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao appointed Mukherjee as Planning Commission head and in 1995 he became Foreign Minister. As Finance Minister, Mukherjee signed the letter appointing Manmohan Singh as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

In 1989, he became General Secretary of AICC in 1998-99 after Sonia Gandhi became Congress President. Mukherjee held the position of President of the West Bengal Congress in 2000-2010. In 2004, he became Leader of the House of Lok Sabha. It was assumed that he would be made Prime Minister of India after Sonia Gandhi declined to become Prime Minister; however, Manmohan Singh was chosen. Mukherjee held most of the major portfolio’s in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Government. In 2004, he was appointed as the Defence Minister of India by Prime Minister Manmohan singh. In June 2005 he signed the ten-year Indo-US Defence Framework deal. In 2005, while inaugurating the 5th session of the Indo-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC) in Moscow. He also proclaimed that “Russia has been and will remain India's largest defence partner in the years to come" 

In October 2005, Russia and India held their first joint anti-terror war games in Rajasthan. In 2006, he again became External Affairs Minister of India and in 2009, he again became Finance Minister. He introduced the Goods and Services Tax during his tenure. He was awarded with “Finance Minister of the Year for Asia" by Emerging Markets, the daily newspaper of record for the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and The Banker  recognised him as "Finance Minister of the Year. On 25th July 2012, he became the President of India. He said we are in the midst of a fourth world war of terror (the third was the Cold war) and what minutes of peace can achieve cannot be achieved in many years of war. In 2008, he was awarded with India’s second highest civilian award Padma Bhushan and in 2019, he was awarded with India’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna. In 2017, he was succeeded by Ram Nath Kovind.

Pranab Mukherjee wrote several, which are 

Beyond Survival: Emerging Dimensions of Indian Economy

Off the Track: A Few Comments on Current Affairs

Challenges Before the Nation: Saga of Struggle and Sacrifice (Indian National Congress, A Centenary History of the Indian National Congress – Volume V: 1964–1984 

Congress and the Making of the Indian Nation

Thoughts and Reflections 

The Dramatic Decade: The Indira Gandhi Years 

The Turbulent Years: 1980–1996 and 

The Coalition Years: 1996–2012.  

On 10th August 2020, prior to his surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain, Mukherjee announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19. "India grieves the passing away of Bharat Ratna Pranab Mukherjee. He has left an indelible mark on the development trajectory of our nation. A scholar par excellence, a towering statesman, he was admired across the political spectrum and by all sections of society," the PM Narendra Modi said in tweets. On 31st August 2020, India had lost its 13th President , a man who served the country for almost 51 years and with utmost devotion .