Former Indian President Pranab Mukherjee has died 21 days after confirming that he had a positive experience with the novel Coronavirus.
The 84-year-old was in hospital for a
brain hemorrhage when he was diagnosed’ with code 19.
Prior to serving as President between 2012
and 2017, Mr. Mukherjee held several key portfolios during his 51-year
political career.
These included the Ministries of Finance,
Foreign Affairs and Defense.
His son Abhijeet confirmed the news in a
tweet.
Mr. Mukherjee has also served on the
boards of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Most of his career was with the Congress
party, which dominated Indian politics for decades before Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered two consecutive losses in
2014 and 2019.
Mr. Mukherjee joined the party in the
1960s under then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, whom he described as his patron.
In 1986, he joined the Congress leadership
and started his own political party, but returned two years later.
Mr. Mukherjee has been a Member of
Parliament for 37 years, widely known as the Consensus Builder. This is an
important and valuable attribute given that successive governments before 2014
were based’ on alliances.
However, Mr. Mukherjee's ambition - to
become the Prime Minister of India - was never’ realized.
After the assassination of Indira Gandhi
in 1984 and his party's unexpected election victory in 2004 - he was twice
ignored’ for the post.
Man Mohan Singh, a trained economist who
was elected’ Prime Minister, later said that Mr. Mukherjee had every reason to be
sad. "I was better off being the prime minister but he also knew I had no
choice in the matter," Dr Singh said.
Pranab Mukherjee was one of the most
amazing politicians of India.
As a leading figure in the Congress party,
he has been in charge of every important ministry in India, namely trade,
defense, foreign affairs and finance, over a half-century long political
career.
The way this mediocre leader lacked a
large-scale politician - he was mostly elected’ to the upper house of
parliament. He built with a deep sense of realism and strong management skills.
During the two terms of the Congress-led
government that ended in 2014, Mr. Mukherjee discussed the great injustices and
the flat waters of the undisputed coalition.
He worked tirelessly to build consensus on
a fleet of rights-based legislation on issues such as food security and the
right to information, which helped his party gain political stature and
popularity.
His record as finance minister in the
second term was less than excellent: the economy warmed up, inflation soared
and interest rates soared. Critics called him India's worst ever finance
minister.
As the 13th President of the Republic, Mr.
Mukherjee is on a good line with his party's arch-enemy and now Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and his own Congress party leaders.
In many ways, he was an extraordinary
concession to the roughness and rigor of Indian politics: a quiet two-way
leader and an encyclopedic memory-stricken consensus builder.
When Mr. Mukherjee was appointed’
President of India in 2012, he was acknowledged to be the most experienced
politician to ever hold the post.
As president, he saw the rejection of 18
bills that had been sent’ to him for consensus. Presidents usually do not
reject bills sent to them.
He also rejected 30 mercy petitions from
death row inmates - the highest of any Indian president.
As a result, Afzal Guru, convicted of
involvement in the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, was hanged’ in
February 2013.
Yaqub Menon, convicted of financing the
1993 Mumbai terror attacks, and Ajmal Kasab, a gunman involved in the 2008
Mumbai attacks, were also executed’ during his time.
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