Former President Of India Pranab Mukherjee Passes Away At 84: Facts About Him That Will Inspire You

Pranab Mukherjee, the former President of India and Bharat Ratana passes away at the age of 84 on 31 August 2020. He was fighting against a prolonged illness. He was suffering from COVID-19 and was kept on a ventilator as well. Born on 11 December 1935, he hailed from Birbhum district, West Bengal. It was on 15 June 2012, when he was sworn in as the 13 President of India. While the nation mourns the loss of the former president, leader and politician, we are here with some facts related to him.

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1. Pranab Mukherjee was born into a Bengali family to parents Rajlakshmi Mukherjee (mother) and Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee (father) who actively took part in the Indian Independence Movement.

2. He attended the Suri Vidyasagar College in Suri, Birbhum. Later he earned a degree in Political Science and History and LLB from the University of Calcutta.

3. Very few people know that he served as an upper-division Clerk in the Office of Deputy Accountant-General in Calcutta.

4. In 1957, he married Surva Mukherjee. The couple was blessed with two sons and a daughter. Surva Mukherjee died at the age of 74 in 2015, after suffering from heart failure. At the time of her demise, Mukherjee was still in the office.

5. It was in 1963 when he became a lecturer of Political Science at the Vidyanagar College in Kolkata. Not only this, but he also worked as a journalist for some time before entering into politics.

6. It was in 1969 when Pranab Mukherjee's political career began. This was due to his efforts which resulted in the successful election campaign of V.V Krishna Menon, an independent candidate from Midnapore.

7. This is when Indira Gandhi spotted Pranab Mukherjee and was impressed by his talent. She then recruited him to the National Congress Party.

8. He then became a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1969.

9. During the early days of his political career, Mukherjee rose to popularity and soon became the Union Deputy Minister of Industrial Development in 1973 in Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's cabinet.

10. In 1979 he became the Deputy leader of the Indian National Congress (INC) in the Upper House while in 1980 he became the leader of the House.

11. However, after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the party members sidelined Pranab Mukherjee. People often considered Mukherjee as the successor of Indira Gandhi's legacy but destiny had some other plans. Though Mukherjee was more experienced in politics than Rajiv Gandhi, the latter gained control and Mukherjee lost his position in the Cabinet.

12. Soon Mukherjee was sent to look after and manage the West Bengal Congress Committee. Eventually, Mukherjee was expelled from the mainstream.

13. This is when Mukherjee founded another party in the year 1986 named Rashtriya Samajwadi Party (RSP). The party was founded in West Bengal. But after three years INC and RSP merged following some deals with Rajiv Gandhi.

14. But in the year 1987, the RSP failed terribly in the West Bengal Assembly polls and this is when many politics analysts made speculations about Mukherjee's inability to emerge as a strong and magnetic mass leader.

15. But this wasn't the end of his career as after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, P.V Narsimha Rao appointed Mukherjee as the deputy chairman of the Indian planning commission. He was then subsequently appointed as a union cabinet minister as well.

16. In PM Rao's Cabinet, Mukherjee served as the Minister of External Affairs from 1995 to 1996.

17. Even today, Mukherjee stood as a loyalist to the Gandhi family and is said to be the architect of Sonia Gandhi's career in Indian Politics. When Sonia Gandhi joined Indian politics, Mukherjee was one of her mentors and often guided her through examples and life lessons of Indira Gandhi.

18. One cannot turn a blind eye towards the contribution of Pranab Mukherjee in steering the Cabinet pre-Lok Sabha elections in 2008-09. This is when the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh underwent by-pass surgery. During this time, despite being the Union Minister of External Affairs, Mukherjee took the additional charge of the Chairman of the Cabinet Committee of Political Affairs and Union Minister in Finance Ministry.

19. In the year 2011, Mukherjee was honoured with the "The Best Administrator in India".

20. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh once quoted, "Mr. Mukherjee's knowledge of parliamentary matters was stupendous. The wide respect he commanded and his long association with the political leaders across the spectrum had proved invaluable in conducting the parliamentary business."

21. On 15 June 2012, Pranab Mukherjee was nominated as the presidential candidate of the United Progressive Alliance. On 25 July 2012, Mukherjee was sworn in by the Chief-Justice of India.

22. It was on 10 August 2020, when Mukherjee through his Twitter handle announced that he has tested COVID-19 positive. This was prior to his scheduled surgery which was intended to remove a blood clot in his brain. He was admitted to the Army's Research and Referral (R&R) hospital after he slipped and fell in his bathroom.

23. On 13 August 2020, Mukherjee underwent brain surgery after doctors announced that he went into a deep coma. On 19 August 2020, it was announced that Mukherjee has caught a lung infection. Subsequently, he was kept on life support system.

24. His demise was confirmed by his son Abhijit Mukherjee through his Twitter handle.