Former President of India and Bharat Ratna Pranab Mukherjee breathed his last today at the Army Research and Referral Hospital in Delhi, days after undergoing an emergency clot removal procedure in his brain.Mukherjee, who served as the 13th President of India from 2012 to 2017, had to be put on ventilator support after the procedure. He had also tested positive for COVID-19 in the pre-surgical examinations. He was 84, and leaves behind two sons and a daughter.
Before becoming President, Mukherjee was a stalwart of the Congress party, having served as the country’s finance and defence minister, besides the leader of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
His career was illustrious, despite the party shunning him into the wilderness in the 80s for a few years and overlooking him for the PM post in 2004, in favour of Manmohan Singh, politically his junior.
Mukherjee was known for his excellent knowledge of parliamentary matters and ability to command respect across party lines.
Born on December 11, 1935, in Mirati, Bengal Presidency, British India to West Bengal Legislative Council member Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee and Rajlakshmi, Mukherjee did his schooling from Suri Vidyasagar College, Suri. He later went to the famed University of Calcutta and did his Masters in Political Science and History followed by LLB degree.
He married Surva Mukherjee in 1957 and the couple had two sons, Indrajit Mukherjee and Abhijit Mukherjee (Congress MP from Jangipur) and daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee.
Prior to joining politics, Mukherjee served as an upper-division Clerk in the Office of Deputy Accountant-General, Calcutta. He also served as Assistant Professor in Kolkata’s Vidyanagar College and as a journalist for Desher Dak.
His entry into politics came in 1969 after he managed the election campaign of VK Krishna Menon who contested as an independent candidate. He was drafted into Congress by then prime minister Indira Gandhi and he became a Rajya Sabha member the same year.
Mukherjee was re-elected to the upper house in 1975, 1981, 1993 and 1999. Mukherjee was appointed as the Deputy leader of Congress in the Rajya Sabha in 1979. A year later he became the Leader of the House and presided over the cabinet meetings in the absence of the prime minister. He also served as the Leader of the House in Lok Sabha back in 2004.
Seen as a trusted aide of Indira Gandhi, he served a minister in her cabinet in 1973. Hailed as her ‘man for all seasons’ Mukherjee stood strongly besides Gandhi during the controversial Emergency period.
His career suffered an upset after the death of Indira Gandhi, when Rajiv Gandhi sent him to look after the affairs the regional West Bengal Pradesh Congress.
Legend has it that Mukherjee was eyeing the top job – a charge he denied – but he protested his demotion by floating his own party, Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress, before returning back to the Congress fold a few years later.
In the early 90s, he was appointed by the PM Narasimha Rao as the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and later as the External Affairs Minister.
He was said to be one of the key aides behind Sonia Gandhi’s ascendancy in the Congress party, serving the party in various roles capped by the stint at FM between 2009 and 2012.
He retired from active politics and was appointed as the President of India in July 2012.