Pranab Mukherjee

Pranab Kumar Mukherjee ( ; 11 December 1935 – 31 August 2020) was an Indian politician who served as the  president of India from 2012 until 2017. He was the first person from West Bengal to hold the post of President of India. In a political career spanning five decades, Mukherjee was a senior leader in the Indian National Congress and occupied several top ministerial portfolios in the Government of India. Prior to his election as President, Mukherjee was Finance Minister from 2009 to 2012 also in 1982 to 1984. He was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 2019, by his successor as president, Ram Nath Kovind.

Mukherjee entered national politics in 1969, when Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, helped him get elected to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India. He became one of Gandhi's most trusted lieutenants and a minister in her cabinet in 1973. Mukherjee's service in a number of ministerial capacities culminated in his first stint as Finance Minister of India from 1982 to 1984. He was also the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha from 1980 to 1985.

After being dropped from the cabinet by Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, in 1986, Mukherjee formed his own party, the Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress, which merged with the Congress in 1989 after his reconciliation with the party's top leadership. Prime Minister, P. V. Narasimha Rao, appointed him as the head of the Planning Commission in 1991 and as the foreign minister in 1995. Mukherjee supported Sonia Gandhi's candidacy and election as the President of the Indian National Congress in 1998.

When the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) came to power in 2004, Mukherjee was elected to the Lok Sabha, the popularly elected lower house of Parliament, for the first time. From then until his resignation in 2012, he held a number of key cabinet portfolios in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's governmentDefence (2004–06), External Affairs (2006–09), and Finance (2009–12)apart from heading several Groups of Ministers (GoMs) and being Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha. After securing the UPA's nomination for the country's presidency in July 2012, Mukherjee comfortably defeated P. A. Sangma of NDA in the 2012 Indian presidential election, winning 70 per cent of the electoral-college vote.

In 2017, Mukherjee decided not to run for re-election and to retire from politics after leaving the presidency due to "health complications relating to old age." His term expired on 25 July 2017. He was succeeded as president by Ram Nath Kovind. In June 2018, Mukherjee became the first former President of India to address a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) event.

thumb|right|Mukherjee with [[President of Nepal Bidya Devi Bhandari]]

Early life and education

Pranab Mukherjee was born on 11 December 1935 during the British Colonial rule, into a Bengali Brahmin family in Mirati, a village in the Bengal Presidency (now in Birbhum district, West Bengal). His father, Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee, was active participant in the Indian independence movement and was a member of the West Bengal Legislative Council between 1952 and 1964 as a representative of the Indian National Congress; he was also a member of AICC. His mother was Rajlakshmi Mukherjee. He had two siblings: older sister Annapurna Banarjee (1928–2020) and older brother Piyush Mukherjee (1931–2017).

Mukherjee attended Suri Vidyasagar College in Suri (Birbhum), which was then affiliated to the University of Calcutta. He subsequently earned an MA degree in political science and history and an LL.B. degree, both from the University of Calcutta Subsequently, he was an upper-division Clerk in the Office of the Deputy Accountant-General (Post and Telegraph) in Calcutta. In 1963, he became a lecturer (Assistant Professor) of Political Science at Vidyanagar College, affiliated to the University of Calcutta and he also worked as a journalist at Desher Dak (Call of the Motherland) before entering politics.

Political career

Mukherjee started his political career in 1967 as a founding member of the Bangla Congress. Mukherjee soon became the medium of exchanging confidential notes between Indira Gandhi and Ajoy Mukherjee. In 1972, Indira Gandhi recruited him to the Indian National Congress along with merging the Bangla Congress into the party. Mukherjee was re-elected to the house in 1975, 1981, 1993, and 1999. He rose rapidly through the ranks of Congress leaders and was appointed Union Deputy Minister of Industrial Development in Indira Gandhi's cabinet in 1973. He was active in the Indian cabinet during the controversial Internal Emergency of 1975–77. Ruling Congress politicians of the day including Mukherjee were accused of using extra-constitutional powers to "wreck established norms and rules of governance". Following Congress's defeat in the 1977 general elections, the newly formed Janata government-appointed Shah Commission indicted Mukherjee; however, the commission was itself indicted in 1979 for stepping "outside its jurisdiction". He was the Finance Minister from 1982 to 1984. His term was noted for his work in improving the finances of the government, which enabled Gandhi to score a political point by returning the last instalment of India's first IMF loan. As Finance Minister, Mukherjee signed the letter appointing Manmohan Singh as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

In 1986, Mukherjee founded another party, the Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress (RSC), in West Bengal. The RSC and INC merged three years later after a compromise was reached with Rajiv Gandhi. The RSC had fared terribly in the 1987 Assembly polls in West Bengal. Many analysts, over the years, have attributed the muting of Mukherjee's political aspirations as the supreme leader to his inability to emerge as a magnetic mass leader. Zee News noted: "The statement assumes heft in the light of the longstanding speculation that Mukherjee, as one of the doyens of Congress, always nursed an ambition to occupy the top executive post".

Mukherjee was briefly considered for the post of the largely ceremonial Indian presidency in 2007, but his name was subsequently dropped after his contribution to the Union Cabinet was considered practically indispensable.

Political party role

Mukherjee was "very well respected within the party social circles". Media accounts describe him as having "a reputation as a number-crunching politician with a phenomenal memory and an unerring survival instinct".

He became a member of the Congress Working Committee on 27 January 1978. He also became a member of the Central Parliamentary Board of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) that year. Mukherjee briefly held the position of treasurer of the AICC and the Congress party in 1978.

After Sonia Gandhi reluctantly agreed to join politics, Mukherjee was one of her mentors, guiding her through difficult situations with examples of how her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi, would have done things. His talents were on display during the negotiations for the Patents Amendment Bill in early 2005. Congress was committed to passing an IP bill, but their allies in the United Progressive Alliance from the Left front had a long tradition of opposing some of the monopoly aspects of intellectual property. Mukherjee, as Defence Minister, was not formally involved but was roped in for his negotiation skills. He drew on many old allies including the CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu (former Chief Minister of West Bengal), and formed new intermediary positions, which included product patents. Then, he had to convince his own colleagues, including commerce minister Kamal Nath, who at one point said..."An imperfect legislation is better than no legislation". Finally, on 23 March 2005, the bill was approved.

Mukherjee played a crucial role in steering the Cabinet pre-Lok Sabha elections when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh underwent a heart bypass surgery in 2008–09 by taking additional charges as chairman of the Cabinet Committee of Political Affairs and Union Minister in the Finance Ministry despite already being Union Minister of External Affairs.

Mukherjee's political skills and long experience in government have also led him to head a large number of committees of ministers in the government. At the time of his resignation, on being nominated as the UPA's presidential candidate, Mukherjee was heading several Groups of Ministers (GoMs) and Empowered Groups of Ministers (EGoMs).

Union Cabinet Minister

Minister of Defence

thumb|Mukherjee in 2004

Manmohan Singh appointed Mukherjee as the Minister of Defence of India when the Congress Party once again came to power in 2004. Mukherjee held the post until 2006. He expanded cooperation with the United States during his tenure. The Times of India reported on the United States diplomatic cables leak release and noted how the U.S. was full of praise for the "uniformed leadership" of Indian armed forces. In June 2005, Mukherjee inked the ten-year Indo-US Defence Framework deal.

Despite increasing co-operation with the United States, Mukherjee maintained that Russia would remain India's 'topmost' defence partner. He asserted that "Russia has been and will remain India's largest defence partner in the years to come" while inaugurating the 5th session of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC) in Moscow in 2005.

Russia and India held their first joint anti-terror war games in Rajasthan in October 2005, during which Mukherjee and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov narrowly escaped injury after a heavy mortar landed several metres from their platform. The Russian ministry subsequently declared its hopes to follow up joint military exercises in India with further joint exercises on Russian territory.

His second term began in 2006. He oversaw the successful signing of the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement with the U.S. government and then with the Nuclear Suppliers Group, allowing India to participate in civilian nuclear trade in spite of not having signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Mukherjee played a crucial role in mobilising world opinion against Pakistan after the 2008 Mumbai attacks. He left the position a year later to take over the Finance Ministry of India.

Mukherjee was credited with being an early reformer of the Indian economy. India Today wrote: "Operation Forward, which [Mukherjee] and then Industries Minister Charanjit Chanana launched in the early 1980s, started the liberalisation process that flowered under Rao and Manmohan Singh". During Mukherjee's tenure of 1991 to 1996, Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister oversaw many economic reforms to end the Licence Raj system and help open the Indian economy.

thumb|Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee during the [[World Economic Forum|World Economic Summit 2009 in New Delhi]]

Mukherjee once again became the Finance Minister of India in 2009. He presented the annual budgets in 2009, 2010, and 2011. The 2010–11 budget included the country's first explicit target to cut public debt as a proportion of the GDP and Mukherjee targeted a budget deficit reduction of 4.1% of the GDP in the fiscal year 2012–13, from 6.5% in 2008–09. He implemented the Goods and Services Tax during his tenure. These reforms were well received by major corporate executives and economists. The introduction of retrospective taxation, however, has been criticised by some economists.

left|thumb|Finance Minister of India Pranab Mukherjee with [[President of the World Bank Group Jim Yong Kim at the Ministry of Finance HQ in New Delhi, 2012]]

Mukherjee expanded funding for several social sector schemes including the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. He also supported budget increases for improving literacy and health care. He expanded infrastructure programmes such as the National Highway Development Programme. Electricity coverage was also expanded during his tenure. Mukherjee also reaffirmed his commitment to the principle of fiscal prudence as some economists expressed concern about the rising fiscal deficits during his tenure, the highest since 1991. Mukherjee declared the expansion in government spending was only temporary.

In 2010, he was awarded "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). Mukherjee was praised for "the confidence [he] has inspired in key stakeholders, by virtue of his fuel price reforms, fiscal transparency and inclusive growth strategies".

Other positions

Mukherjee was chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata. He also held the following posts: chairman and president of the Rabindra Bharati University and the Nikhil Bharat Banga Sahitya Sammelan; trustee of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad and the Bidhan Memorial Trust. He also served on the Planning Board of the Asiatic Society. Shri Pranab Mukherjee (within India)

|offstyle= President Mukherjee

|altstyle= Mr. President

|image2=File:Secretary Tim Geithner and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee 2010 crop.jpg

left|thumb|President Mukherjee with the US [[President of the United States|President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Indian Vice-president Mohammad Ansari]]

Mukherjee was nominated as the presidential candidate of the United Progressive Alliance on 15 June 2012 after considerable political intrigue. The elections were scheduled to be conducted on 19 July 2012 and the results were expected to be announced on 22 July 2012. The nominee of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was P. A. Sangma. To file his nomination for the presidential poll on 28 June, Mukherjee resigned from the government on 26 June 2012. In his victory speech, delivered outside his residence before the results were officially announced, he said:

Mukherjee was sworn in by the Chief Justice of India on 25 July 2012, becoming the first Bengali to hold the post of President of India.

thumb|left|Mukherjee with leaders of Russia, China, South Africa, Vietnam, and Egypt during the [[2015 Moscow Victory Day Parade|Moscow Victory Day Parade, 9May 2015]]

Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh both congratulated Mukherjee on his election as president. Former Communist leader Somnath Chatterjee termed Mukherjee as one of "the best parliamentarians and statesmen of India" and said the country "has got the most able man for the top job". Opposition leader Sharad Yadav declared "the nation needed a president like Pranab Mukherjee". Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit commented and said Mukherjee will be "one of the wisest presidents". She further marvelled at the fact that parties in the opposition ranks supported Mukherjee. "Even the NDA broke up and wanted to vote for the president to be Pranab Mukherjee". The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was reportedly "shocked" and "upset" at the cross-voting for Mukherjee by its legislative members. However, BJP party president Nitin Gadkari congratulated Mukherjee and said "I extend my hearty congratulations to Pranab Mukherjee on his election today as the new President of India". Gadkari further declared "I am sure that the country will make further development and progress. I wish him all success and a bright future".

thumb|Pranab Mukherjee meeting the Chairman National Assembly of Vietnam Nguyen Sinh Hung, in Hanoi on 15 September 2014

thumb|Mukherjee with Israeli President [[Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem, on 14 October 2015]]

Zee News noted: "What is striking about [Mukherjee] is that after more than four decades in public life, the Opposition had no ammunition against him after he was declared UPA's choice for President. In spite of Team Anna making some noise about him being involved in some corruption cases, it has been more or less an easy ride for Pranab to Raisina Hill. Once when Sonia Gandhi announced his name, most of the allies and the Opposition came on board. Whereas, NDA partner JD(U) saw no merit in opposing him, one of the bitter critics of the Congress Shiv Sena too toed the line a little too easily. This support was not for Congress but for [Mukherjee]". As of July 2015, President Mukherjee had rejected 24 mercy pleas including those of Yakub Memon, Ajmal Kasab, and Afzal Guru. Pranab Mukherjee became first President of India to reply all the mercy petitions in his term for the death row inmates and also replying the petitions of former presidents.

In January 2017, Mukherjee announced that he would not contest the 2017 Presidential elections, citing "advanced age and failing health".

Personal life

Pranab Mukherjee married Suvra Mukherjee on 13 July 1957. Suvra Mukherjee was born at Narail, Bengal Presidency, Present Bangladesh. She moved to Kolkata while she was 10 and married Pranab in 1957. The couple had two sons and a daughter. Their elder son, Abhijit Mukherjee, was a Congress MP from Jangipur, West Bengal, until 2019. He was elected in a by-election after his father vacated the seat. Before his election to the Lok Sabha, Abhijit was an MLA from Nalhati in Birbhum.

Mukherjee was inspired by Deng Xiaoping and quoted him quite frequently. His hobbies were reading, gardening, and music.

Mukherjee celebrated the Durga Puja at his ancestral home in Mirati village. He used to make it a point to be at Mirati village every year to take part in the four-day rituals, the puja having a "social dimension" for him. "I want to avail this opportunity to be with the people of my area", Mukherjee said during a puja ceremony on 4October 2011. He was admitted to the hospital after accidentally slipping and falling in his bathroom. He was on ventilator support and in critical condition at the Army's Research and Referral (R&R) hospital in Delhi.

On 13 August, the hospital reported that Mukherjee was in a deep coma after he underwent brain surgery; however, his vital parameters remained stable. On 19 August, the R&R said that Mukherjee's health condition had declined as he had developed a lung infection. On , his renal parameters became "slightly deranged", with the condition worsening days later.

Mukherjee died on 31 August 2020, aged 84, which was confirmed by his son Abhijit Mukherjee via Twitter. His death came after the attending hospital confirmed that his health had deteriorated early that day, stating that he had been in septic shock since a day earlier, which was caused by his lung infection.

Condolences poured in immediately from citizens and political parties of both India and other nations. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi conveyed their condolences via Twitter. The Prince of Wales, President of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani, President of the Maldives Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bhutan, Lotay Tshering, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa, and Prime Minister of Nepal K. P. Sharma Oli were among foreign leaders who paid their respects. Sports players and actors from the country also voiced their sorrow.

The Government of India announced a seven-day period of state mourning between 31 August to 6 September, whereby the national flag would fly at half mast on all buildings wherever it is flown regularly. The West Bengal state government declared a closure of state-run offices for the following day as a mark of respect.

Mukherjee's funeral was held the following day, on 1 September at the Lodi Road crematorium, with full state honours. His body was brought to the crematorium in a van instead of a gun carriage due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in the country. His ashes were immersed into the Ganges river in Haridwar.

In popular culture

Mukherjee appeared in the Indian mock court television talk show () on India TV when he was the Minister of Defence, discussing the UPA government's performance of in the past one year since the 2004 elections.

Awards and honours

thumb|The President, Pratibha Devisingh Patil presenting the Padma Vibhushan to Pranab Mukherjee, at an Investiture-I Ceremony, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on 5 May 2008

National honours

:
50px Bharat Ratna (8 August 2019)
50px Padma Vibhushan (26 January 2008)

Foreign honours

:
50px Bangladesh Liberation War Honour (5 March 2013)
:
50px National Order of the Ivory Coast, Grand Cross (14 June 2016)
:
50px Order of Makarios III, Grand Collar (28 April 2017)

Freedom of the City

Abidjan, Ivory Coast:
Honorary Citizenship of Abidjan (15 June 2016)
Janakpur, Nepal:
Key to the City (4 November 2016)

Honorary degrees

University of Wolverhampton:
Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) (2011)
Assam University:
Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) (2012)
Visvesvaraya Technological University:
Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) (2012)
University of Dhaka:
Doctor of Law (LL.D.) (4 March 2013)
University of Mauritius:
Doctor of Civil Law (DCL) (13 March 2013)
Istanbul University:
Honorary Doctorate (5 October 2013)
University of Calcutta:
Honorary Doctorate (28 November 2014)
University of Jordan:
Doctor of Political Science (DPS) (11 October 2015)
Al-Quds University:
Honorary Doctorate (13 October 2015)
Hebrew University of Jerusalem:
Honorary Doctorate (15 October 2015)
Kathmandu University:
Honorary Doctorate (3 November 2016)
Goa University:
Honorary Doctorate (25 April 2017)
Jadavpur University:
Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) (24 December 2017)
University of Chittagong:
Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) (16 January 2018)

Other recognition

In 1984, a Euromoney magazine survey rated him among the best finance ministers in the world.
Finance Minister of the Year for Asia (2010), by Emerging Markets, daily newspaper of record for the World Bank and IMF.
Finance Minister of the Year (2010), by The Banker

Offices held

Pranab Mukherjee's positions in chronological order:

Union Minister of Industrial Development: 1973–1974
Union Minister of Shipping and Transport: 1974
Minister of State for Finance: 1974–1975
Union Minister of Revenue and Banking: 1975–1977
Treasurer of Congress Party: 1978–79
Treasurer of All India Congress Committee: 1978–79
Leader of House of Rajya Sabha: 1980–85
Union Minister of Commerce and Steel and Mines: 1980–1982
Union Minister of Finance: 1982–1984
Board of Governors of International Monetary Fund: 1982–1985
Board of Governors of World Bank: 1982–1985
Board of Governors of Asian Development Bank: 1982–1984
Board of Governors of African Development Bank: 1982–1985
Union Minister of Commerce and Supply: 1984
Chairman: Campaign Committee of Congress-I for conducting National Elections to Parliament, 1984 Indian general election, 1991 Indian general election, 1996 Indian general election, 1998 Indian general election
Chairman of Group of 24 (a Ministerial Group attached to IMF and World Bank): 1984, 2009–2012
President of State Unit of Congress Party: 1985, 2000–08
Chairman of Economic Advisory Cell of AICC: 1987–1989
Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission: 1991–1996
Union Minister of Commerce: 1993–1995
Union Minister of External Affairs: 1995–1996
President, SAARC Council of Ministers Conference: 1995
General Secretary of AICC: 1998–1999
Chairman of Central Election Coordination Committee: 1999–2012
Leader of House of Lok Sabha: 2004–2012
Union Minister of Defence: 2004–2006
Union Minister of External Affairs: 2006–2009
Union Minister of Finance: 2009–2012
President of India: 25 July 2012 – 25 July 2017.