President Pranab Mukherjee’s avatar as a teacher left schoolchildren “enlightened” “encouraged” and “humbled” after they got the “historic” opportunity to become students of the President of India for a day.
Asking his pupils to call him “Mukherjee sir”, the President gave a lecture on the political history of India to senior secondary students of Dr Rajendra Prasad Sarvodaya Vidyalaya inside President’s Estate on the eve of Teachers’ Day.
“I am not Minister or President today. I am your Mukherjee sir. I will be very happy if you call me that,” he said. Putting students completely at ease with his cheerful demeanour, he told them he was not a bright student. “I am explaining history as I have seen it,” he said.
The President also told the students that experiments with ideas of public interest were beneficial for Indian democracy. “Indian people are making experiments (with ideas).”
Referring to concepts such as universal voting rights, free and fair voting mechanism, an independent Election Commission, he said people continue to question if the country had progressed and what more it could achieve.
“Powerful instruments are developing as offshoots of this thinking of civil society, NGOs, social movements,” he explained.
Recalling social activist Anna Hazare’s public movement against corruption, the President said people have the right to question. “If people feel that the MPs and the Government are not doing their jobs, they cannot sit idle.”
Ayush, a class XI student of Commerce, lauded the President for “encouraging” the class by giving examples from his personal life.
“He said you do not need to be rich or poor to get an education and the wealth of your parents also does not matter. It is your right and will that take you to great heights. His lecture was so encouraging, it was knowledge for life,” Ayush said.
While delivering his lecture, Mukherjee said: “If you get bored, please feel free to tell me.”
Mukherjee then went on to explain the relevance of the “fourth pillar” in making India a strong democracy.
“There are three important pillars in our Constitution, the Executive, legislature, and Judiciary. The fourth pillar I am talking about is civil society, including the media, NGOs and all the public opinion which is being created,” he said.
Mukherjee termed social networking sites Twitter and Facebook as “powerful instruments” of conveying and creating public opinion. “All these have been offshoots and outcomes of proper, healthy democratic development. And that is the contribution of India’s democratic system,” he said.
He also praised late Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for ushering economic liberalisation into the country in the early 1990s.
In an hour-long class, Mukherjee talked in detail about India’s Independence, economic growth and political journey post-Independence. later, in a separate session, he interacted with teachers from various schools gathered there.
“India is known for its guru-shishya (teacher and student) bond and tradition. Today, social recognition and financial security for teachers are needed, to inspire them,” the President said.
After the class, students had a brief question-answer session with the President.
Asked whom he would give credit for his success, Mukherjee mentioned his mother. “My best teacher was my mother. I was a very naughty boy. I gave my mother a lot of trouble. However, after giving me a sound thrashing she would come and shower me with a lot of love and ask me what I had done during the day. I would tell her all in a chronological order,” Mukherjee told the students.
However, the excited students were curious to know and learn more from the President.
“I wish he could talk more to us. I wanted to ask him questions but time was up. His entire speech was so interesting that it made us curious to ask questions,” said leena of class XI (Arts) student while another student Sucheta Bhattacharya from class XII wanted a picture with the President.
later, Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal who joined the President during his address to the teachers said, asking the President to take a class had been a “wild idea” but the President made history by agreeing to it in “two minutes.”
“He elevated the status of teaching which I consider to be the noblest profession by coming on board this occasion,” Kejriwal added while Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister, Manish Sisodia also praised the President and promised to make Delhi the “best model” of education in the country.