A consensus builder, trouble shooter and a consummate politician, former President of India Pranab Mukherjee, 85, the real engine of many a Congress Governments, particularly the last two UPA dispensations, was perhaps the last of the old Indira Congressmen who lived a life larger than life.
In his 51-year-old political career, Mukherjee held several of key portfolios including the finance, commerce, foreign and defence before attaining the highest Constitutional post of president of India (2012-2017) when he used his vast political experience to do the fine balancing as the regimes changed hands from Manmohan Singh to Narendra Modi.
It is no less a compliment to Mukherjee who was a great admirer of Indira Gandhi that he was described by Modi as his father figure in 2017 when the former demitted office of President of India.
The political and administrative skills of diminutive politician from Bengal, however, missed his ultimate ambition of becoming Prime Minister twice - first in 1984 after the assassination of Indira Gandhi and thereafter 2004 when Congress returned to power with the unexpected defeat of an ‘aspiring’ Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
In the first instance, he was seen as the senior most to succeed late Prime Minister but young Rajiv Gandhi stepped in and in 2004 his junior in politics Manmohan Singh got the spotlight with Congress President favouring the latter - a rather docile politician- who remained Prime Minister for a decade.
Interestingly, Mukherjee was Finance Minister in his first stint in 1982 under Indira and had signed the letter appointing Singh as Governor of Reserve Bank of India in the same year!
After becoming Prime Minister Singh had acknowledged the pre-eminence and “better qualifications of Mukherjee” to be the PM saying “but he also knew that I have no choice in the matter.”
The son of freedom fighters, Mukherjee was Born in Mirati, a village in West Bengal’s Birbhum district and made his entry into the Parliament in 1969, as a member of the Rajya Sabha
A parliamentarian for 37 years, Mukherjee was known as a consensus-builder and played deft role in cementing coalitions Governments before 2014 were built on coalitions.
Mukherjee joined the Congress in the 1960s during the tenure of then Prime Minister Indira who he had always admired as his mentor and whose photo always adorned his office and home. He was often heard referring Indira’s farsightedness whenever he would feel Government(s) are run with a sloppy hand, even if they are of his own party. He did not like many ministers receiving Yoga Guru at the Delhi airport to court him to the Congress during UPA-2 and reportedly said “this would not happen if it were Indira”.
In 1986, he fell out with the Congress leadership and started his own political party, but returned home two years later to rise in the ranks.
The political rivalry between him as Finance Minister and then home Minister P Chidambaram made news when the latter was accused of bugging former’s office in Finance Ministry in 2011.
A workaholic minster with an encyclopedic memory, the indispensability of the late leader could be gauzed by the fact that in the UPA-1 and UPA-2 he headed as many as 102 Groups of Minister (GOMs) and committees (GOM). As he looked after these GOMs and Committees, he also shouldered responsibilities of leader of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.
As a President, Mukherjee rejected 18 Bills that were sent to him for assent. His Presidency also saw him being the President dismissing the highest number of 30 mercy petitions of those facing death sentence, including that of Afzal Guru, Yakub Menon and Ajmal Kasab.
Mukherjee has also had a seat at the table of various international organisations, with memberships in the IMF, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. He also presided over the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation on various occasions. A voracious reader, he also authored several books during his lifetime. In 2019, he was awarded India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, by President Ram Nath Kovind.
The hectic schedule of Mukherjee — an out and out politician — would never deter him from a good discussion on politics even a late night hour. Soft spoken but lose his temper easily if conversation was not of his level.
Mukherjee remained quintessentially a Bengali till his last days and never lost his touch with his village in West Bengal where he would go for “Kali Puja” in his traditional attire.
Less than a Week before he went to ventilator he asked his son Abhijit to bring jackfruit from his home. “I went to our village, Mirati (in West Bengal’s Birbhum district)...It was a ripe 25kg fruit. Gave to Baba and he was so happy”, said his son. Mukherjee is survived by his son and daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee, also a politician.
Mukherjee lived his life full stretch and died full of years, honours and full of laurels.