Mr Pranab Mukherjee will embark on a new journey transcending political affiliations in the high Constitutional job.
Not a lawyer by training but considered an expert in the working of the Constitution and governance, he was ever seen as the perennial ‘No 2’ in government.
Mr Mukherjee was a utility man from the days of Indira Gandhi, when he was the powerful Minister of State for Revenue during the Emergency, and later as Finance Minister in the 80s.
His rise had been steady and so valuable was his contribution to the Government that his nomination as a Presidential candidate came after a huge dilemma for Congress party, which heads the UPA coalition that has moved from crisis to crisis in the last eight years.
The veteran leader, known for his photographic memory, had become a Rajya Sabha member for the first time in 1969.
Mr Mukherjee was for a long time member of the Upper House before his first direct election to the Lok Sabha in 2004 from Jangipur in West Bengal. He repeated his victory in the 2009 elections but had expressed a desire not to contest elections again in view of his advancing age.
Mr Mukherjee was a top ranking minister and presided over the Union Cabinet meetings in the absence of the Prime Minister during 1980-1985.
Of course, Mukherjee had his bad days in Congress which he had to quit in the mid-80s after he had evinced interest in becoming the Prime Minister after the death of Indira Gandhi in 1984.
It took some time before he came back into the party but once he was in, there was no stopping his rise once again.
Mr Mukherjee became Finance Minister again in 2008 after Mr P. Chidambaram was shifted to Home Ministry in the wake of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
Again his importance was seen when Mr P.V. Narasimha Rao made him Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission as well as the Minister of External Affairs. In between he had to quit because he ceased to be a Member of Parliament and came back to the Cabinet after re-election.
Mr Mukherjee started his public life in the 60s in Bangla Congress during the time of late Chief Minister Ajoy Mukherjee of the United Front government when Jyoti Basu was Deputy Chief Minister in West Bengal. He was general secretary of Bangla Congress.
A post-graduate in political science and history, he can recollect any event of historical importance or mundane political and other events, a matter of envy to many of his colleagues.
Son of a senior Congress leader Kinkar Mukherjee from West Bengal, Mr Pranab had a brief stint as lawyer, teacher and journalist before he joined politics.
Keywords: Pranab Mukherjee, Pranab, Sangma, 13th Indian President, Indian President, President
Comments:
The criminals of CIA-RAW have been deleting my posted comments; save
this on your computer and pass it on.
Yes, it is an outrage that General V. K. Singh, who reported the 14
crore rupees bribe offer to him to the Defence Minister immediately as
A. K. Antony admitted in Parliament which establishes the prima facie
truth of his allegation against Tejinder Singh who offered the bribe,
was in effect arrested along with the serving vice chief of army
staff, head of military intelligence etc. and set free on bail -- by a
magistrate and High Court judges prima facie acting under the
influence of bribes and/or threats from C.I.A.-RAW (see 'What You
Should Know About RAW' below) who must be removed from the bench,
tried and hanged for high treason or, better, summarily executed by
firing squad by the Army without a trial since India is engaged in a
War of Independence from white colonial rule described in 'Join
India's War of Independence' below and an arrest of Army officers
constitutes capture by enemy agents -- for 'defaming' Tejinder Singh
by making this bribery allegation against Tejinder Singh "who had a
long and distinguished career in the Army", as is the murder of
hundreds of Indian Air Force pilots by the serving chief of air staff
in collaboration with the C.I.A. -- see 'Indian Air Force Pilots'
Murder' : IndianAirForcePilotsMurderDOTblogspotDOTcom -- and K.
Subrahmanyam and the C.I.A. Director openly offering to transfer one
crore rupees into my bank account within 48 hours if I agreed to work
with them -- see 'Offer to me by K. Subrahmanyam and C.I.A. Director'
: HaydenSubrahmanyamDOTblogspotDOTcom -- but these things are
consequences of the British killing over ten million Indians in just
the ten years after 1857 in just Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Bihar
because of which India remains under white colonial rule (below).
A report headed "Former Army chief V K Singh's aide in mental ward"
(Times of India, July 21, 2012, Internet) says "Colonel Honey Bakshi
was handpicked to head the Technical Support Division (TSD), a new
secretive unit created by General V K Singh after he took over as Army
chief in March 2010. He continued to head the New Delhi-based unit
after the change of guard in the Army. ... On Wednesday, the officer
was admitted to the psychiatric ward of the Army Hospital in what is
being seen as the latest twist in the simmering factional feud in the
Army. The Military Intelligence (MI) officer has told doctors that he
was being mentally harassed by some of his senior officers. ...
anonymous complaints and media reports claimed that the officer was
instrumental in illegally tapping phones of many important persons in
the national capital. ... The dramatic turn for Col Bakshi shows that
the fight between rival groups in the Army continues. With Gen Singh
retiring on May 31, there have been allegations doing the rounds that
the new Army regime is harassing officers who had once been close to
Gen Singh, including Col Bakshi." I have said in press releases for
about a year that the current Army chief, Bikram Singh, is an enemy
agent. An army fights enemy agents with weapons, not mental wards.
Manmohan Singh at the G-20 meeting in Mexico on June 18 '12 pledged
$10 billion to the IMF to help European countries such as Greece and
Italy cope with debt but will not use the money to help tens of
thousands of Indian farmers committing suicide due to indebtedness or
hundreds of millions of India's malnourished children. He seeks
foreign investment -- that is, foreign ownership and control of India
-- but will not invest the hundreds of billions of dollars he has
given to the United States government -- in exchange for U.S. Treasury
bonds -- in India. This is not even counting the unlimited amount of
capital available to India by simply printing the money so long as it
is used for productive purposes: 'How India's Economy Can Grow 30% Per
Year Or More' :HowIndiasEconomyCanGrowDOTblogspotDOTcom . An example
of foreign investment trumpeted by Commerce and Industry Minister
Anand Sharma is a $5 billion investment in India announced by Coca
Cola to give Indians harmful-to-health beverages and replace healthier
and tastier Indian beverages. Such examples of American rule over
India in economic, military and all spheres can be multiplied hundreds
of times. India's nuclear forces have been accused in the past of
presenting photo-shopped non-existent missiles and non-existent
nuclear warheads but India's nuclear warheads emplaced in U.S. cities
since then are not non-existent : 'Nuclear Supremacy For India Over
U.S.' :NuclearSupremacyForIndiaOverUSDOTblogspotDOTcom . If it is the
non-existence of "knowledge, intelligence, courage and character"
which is responsible for their not having triggered the warheads, with
a warning that additional U.S. cities will be destroyed if there is
any retaliation, it is MY responsibility to provide the knowledge,
intelligence, courage and character; all they have to do is obey
India's legitimate ruler and it is high time they did so without
further delay: 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram Satish Chandra'
:SatyamShivamSundaramSatishChandraDOTblogspotDOTcom .
I have referred in 'Source of Manmohan Singh's 'Deep Love' For Bush' -
- SourceOfManmohanSinghsDeepLoveForBushDOTblogspotDOTcom -- to the
British in India having killed over ten million Indians in just the
ten years after 1857; people have mistakenly assumed these to be
deaths caused by famine but NO, NO, NO, these were deaths caused by
the gun and sword and hangings and being blown from the mouths of
cannons in just the ten years after 1857 in just Uttar Pradesh,
Haryana and Bihar; the deaths caused by famines during British rule
were quite separate from this; see Amaresh Misra's 'India AD 1857' in
two volumes totaling over two thousand pages (Delhi: Rupa & Co., 2008)
which describes hundreds of the battles fought during the 1857
uprising which was thousands of times bigger and more extensive, over
the entire subcontinent, than India's colonial administration -- all
Indian governments after 1947 have been a continuation of white
colonial rule; see 'What You Should Know About RAW':
WhatYouShouldKnowAboutRAWDOTblogspotDOTcom -- will let Indians know;
this two volume work should replace the Ramayan and Mahabharat as
required daily reading in Indian homes and schools -- all educational
institutions at all levels should have required courses in the 1857
War of Independence studies -- without which Indians cannot capture
the hatred for the white man (and woman) to win India's War of
Independence: 'A Note on Hate': ANoteOnHateDOTblogspotDOTcom and 'Join
India's War of Independence' :
JoinIndiaWarOfIndependenceDOTblogspotDOTcom . With the simultaneous
nuclear destruction of New Delhi, Washington and New York, with a
warning that additional U.S. cities will be destroyed if there is any
retaliation, this time the result of India's War of Independence will
be different. Satish Chandra
Please Email the Editor