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Sri Pranab Mukherjee

Pranab Kumar Mukherjee was born on 11th December 1935, is the president-elect and would be sworn in as the 13th President of India on 25 July 2012 at 11:30 AM (IST). The veteran Congress leader became the President of India after over four decades of life in active politics. He also became the first Bengali to assume the post of the President of India. He was an Indian statesman and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and had held important ministerial portfolios in the government of India during his political career.

Pranab Mukherjee began his political career with the Indian National Congress in 1969 under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He became one of her top lieutenants and was often described as her "man for all seasons". His rise was meteoric in the early phase of his career and he became a cabinet minister in Indira Gandhi's government in 1973. Mukherjee rose through a series of cabinet posts to become the Finance Minister of India from 1982 to 1984. Mukherjee was Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha from 1980 to 1985. Mukherjee was sidelined from the Congress during the Rajiv Gandhi era. He had viewed himself, and not the rookie Rajiv Gandhi, as the rightful successor to Indira Gandhi.Mukherjee lost out in the ensuing power struggle. He formed his own political party, theRashtriya Samajwadi Congress, but later merged it with Congress in 1989 after reaching a political compromise with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Mukherjee's political career revived when Prime Minister Narasimha Rao chose to appoint him as Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission and subsequently as a union cabinet minister in the 1990s. He served as the Minister of External Affairs (Foreign Minister) from 1995 to 1996 in Rao's cabinet.

Mukherjee was the principal architect of Sonia Gandhi's entry into Indian politics in the 1990s. He became the elder statesman of the Congress party during this period. Mukherjee was Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2012. He served as theMinister of Defence from 2004 to 2006 and again served as the Minister of External Affairs from 2006 to 2009. He was the Finance Minister from 2009 to 2012 in the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Mukherjee has received several accolades and honors. In 1984, he was rated as the best Finance Minister in the World according to a survey of Euromoney magazine. In 2010, he was awarded "Finance Minister of the Year for Asia" by Emerging Markets, the daily newspaper of record for the World Bank and the IMF. In December 2010, The Banker recognised him as the "Finance Minister of the Year." The government of India honored him with the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award of India, in 2008.

Family and career

Mukherjee was born to a Bengali Hindu Kulin Brahmin family at Mirati in the Bengalprovince of British India. His father, Kamada Kumar Mukherjee, was a member of the Indian National Congress during the Indian independence movement and had spent more than ten years in British jails. K. K Mukherjee later became a member of West Bengal Legislative Council (WBLC) from 1952 to 1964, and was also the President of the District Congress Committee in Birbhum.

Mukherjee attended the Suri Vidyasagar College in Suri (Birbhum), then affiliated with theUniversity of Calcutta. He holds a Master of Arts degree in History and Political Science and also a degree in law from the University of Calcutta. Mukherjee was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Wolverhampton in 2011. He was also awarded an honorary D.Litt by the Assam University in March 2012. 

Professional career

Mukherjee began his career as an upper-division clerk in the office of the Deputy Accountant-General (Post and Telegraph) in Calcutta before he became a college-teacher and later a journalist. He worked for noted Bengali publication Desher Dak (Call of Motherland).

Mukherjee was chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata. He is also the former chairman and president of theRabindra Bharati University and the Nikhil Bharat Banga Sahitya Sammelan. Mukherjee is a former trustee of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad and the Bidhan Memorial Trust. Mukherjee used to be on the Planning Board of the Asiatic Society.

Personal life

Pranab Mukherjee married Suvra Mukherjee on July 13, 1957 and has two sons, Abhijit and Indrajit and a daughter, Sharmistha Mukherjee He is inspired by Deng Xiaoping & has quoted him quite frequently. His hobbies are reading, gardening and music. His son, Abhijit Mukherjee, is a Congress MLA from West Bengal.

Mukherjee celebrates the Durga Puja at his ancestral home in Mirati village in West Bengal's Birbhum district. He makes it a point to be at Mirati village every year to take part in the four-day rituals, the puja having a 'social dimension' for him. "I want to avail of this opportunity to be with the people of my area," Mukherjee said during a puja ceremony on October 4, 2011.

Political career

Mukherjee got involved in the politics of the Indian National Congress in 1969. He had managed the successful election campaign for independent candidate Krishna Menon during the by-elections in Midnapore. Prime Minister and Congress supreme leader Indira Gandhi recognized his talents and made him a part of her party. Gandhi gave Mukherjee a seat in the Rajya Sabha (upper house) of the parliament from the Congress party in July 1969. Mukherjee was later re-elected in 1975, 1981, 1993 and 1999.

Mukherjee became a staunch Indira Gandhi loyalist. He was described as her "man for all seasons". Mukherjee's rise was meteoric in the early phase of his career and he was appointed Union Deputy Minister of Industrial Development in Indira Gandhi's cabinet in 1973. Mukherjee was active in the Indian cabinet during the Emergency. Ruling politicians of the day including Mukherjee were accused of using extra-constitutional power centres to "wreck established norms and rules of governance". The Shah commission under the Janata party indicted Mukherjee but the commission was itself later indicted for stepping "outside its jurisdiction" in 1979. Mukherjee emerged from it unscathed and rose through a series of cabinet posts to become the Finance Minister of India from 1982 to 1984. His term was noted for his work in improving the finances of the government that enabled Indira Gandhi to score a political point returning the last instalment of India's first IMF loan. It was Pranab Mukherjee — in his stint as Indira Gandhi's Finance Minister — that had signed the letter appointing Dr. Manmohan Singh as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

Indira Gandhi made Mukherjee the Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha in 1978. He was made Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha in 1980. Mukherjee was considered the top ranking Indian cabinet minister and he even presided over the cabinet meetings in the absence of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The assassination of Indira Gandhi put Mukherjee's career with the Congress in jeopardy. The Rajiv Gandhi era saw the Congress sideline some Indira loyalists including Mukherjee for harbouring ambitions of becoming Prime Minister. Mukherjee saw himself, and not the rookie Rajiv Gandhi, as the rightful successor to Indira Gandhi. He even floated the Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress (National Socialist Congress) party in 1986 in West Bengal which he would merge with the Indian National Congress three years later after reaching a compromise with Rajiv Gandhi. Many analysts, over the years, have attributed the muting of Mukherjee's political aspirations as the supreme leader due to his inability to emerge as a magnetic mass leader.

Mukherjee's political career revived following the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 when P.V. Narasimha Rao chose to appoint him as deputy chairman of the Indian planning commission and subsequently as a union cabinet minister. Mukherjee served as External Affairs Minister for the first time from 1995 to 1996 in Rao's cabinet.

Mukherjee today is considered to be a Gandhi family loyalist and the principal architect of Sonia Gandhi's entry into politics, a mentoring responsibility he is still believed to be shouldering.[6] He was made General Secretary of the AICC in 1998-99 after Sonia Gandhi became Congress President. Mukherjee was made President of the West Bengal Congress in 2000 and held the position until his resignation in 2010. He had earlier held the position in 1985.

Mukherjee was made the Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha when the Congress formed a new government in India in 2004. He had contested the Lok Sabha elections for the first time and won from Jangipur in West Bengal. Mukherjee was re-elected from Jangipur in 2009 as the Congress comfortably secured another victory in the national elections.

Mukherjee was briefly considered for the post of the largely ceremonial Indian presidency in 2007. But his name was subsequently dropped after his contribution in the Union Cabinet was considered practically indispensable.

Mukherjee held many important posts in the Manmohan Singh government. He had the distinction of being the Minister for various high profile Ministries including Defence, Finance, and External Affairs. Mukherjee also headed the Congress Parliamentary Party and the Congress Legislative Party which consists of all the Congress MPs and MLAs in the country apart from being Leader of the House in Lok Sabha and Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee President. Mukherjee ended his affiliation with the Indian National Congress and retired from active political life to contest the national presidential elections in 2012.

The Economic Times noted: "[the] decades of activity in critical all-round roles make [Mukherjee's] exit both a structural and generation shift. With him, the last of the Congress triumvirate - along with Rao and R Venkataraman - who formed the core team of Indira/Rajiv regimes bows out. While Rao became PM, Pranab's political marathon too ends where [Venkataraman's] did, at the Rashtrapati Bhawan."

Political party role

Mukherjee is very well respected within the party social circles." Media accounts describe him as having "a reputation as a number-crunching politician with a phenomenal memory and an unerring survival instinct." Mukherjee became a member of the Congress Working Committee on 27 January 1978. He also became a member of the Central Parliamentary Board of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) that year. Mukherjee briefly held the position of treasurer of the AICC and the Congress party in 1978.

Mukherjee was appointed chairman of the Campaign Committee of AICC for conducting National Elections to Parliament in 1984, 1991, 1996 and 1998. He was chairman of the Central Election Coordination Committee of the AICC from 28 June 1999 to 2012. He was appointed to the Central Election Committee on 12 December 2001. Mukherjee was appointed General Secretary of the AICC in 1998. In 1997 Mukherjee was voted Outstanding Parliamentarian by the Indian Parliamentary Group.

After Sonia Gandhi reluctantly agreed to join politics, Mukherjee was one of her mentors, guiding her through difficult situations with examples of how her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi would have done things. His talents were on display during the negotiations for the Patent's Amendment Bill in early 2005. The Congress was committed to passing an IP bill, but their allies in the United Progressive Alliance from the Left front had a long tradition of opposing some of the monopoly aspects of intellectual property. Pranab Mukherjee, as Defence Minister, was not formally involved but was roped in for his negotiation skills. He drew on many old alliances including the CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu (former Chief Minister of West Bengal), and formed new intermediary positions, which included product patent and little else. Then he had to convince his own colleagues including commerce minister Kamal Nath, at one point saying: "An imperfect legislation is better than no legislation”.  Finally the bill was approved on March 23, 2005.

Mukherjee played a crucial role in steering the Cabinet pre Lok Sabha elections when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh underwent a by-pass surgery in 2008-09 by taking additional charges as chairman of the Cabinet Committee Of Political Affairs and Union Minister in Finance Ministry despite already being Union Minister of External Affairs.

Mukherjee was the recipent of “The Best Administrator in India” award in 2011. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh commented: "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."

 Mukherjee's political skills and long experience in government have also led him to heading a large number of committees of Ministers in the government, a device that has been employed to obtain consensus within the members of the governing coalition on contentious issues. At the time of his resignation on being nominated as Presidential candidate, he was heading the following Group(s) of Ministers(GoM) and Empowered Group(s) of Ministers (EgoMs).

GoM	EGoM
Review of Fertilizer Policy	Spectrum Allocation
Location of National War Memorial	Price Revision of Food Grains
Reports of Administrative Reforms Commission	Pricing in Disinvestment of Public Sector Enterprises
Civil Aviation	Drought Management
Issues relating to WTO	Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt. Ltd
External Energy Security Interface	Gas Pricing and Commercial Utilization
Law relating to Honour Killings	National Highways Development Project
Paid News	Ultra Mega Power Projects
Corruption	Mass Rapid Transit System
Environmental issues relating to Coal Mining	Shareholder Agreements of Public Sector Enterprises
Cold wave as an eligible calamity	Under-recoveries of Oil Marketing Companies
Coal Mines Amendment Bill	Special Economic Zones
ASEAN-India Economic Cooperation Agreement	Competition Act, 2002

Government Positions

Defence Minister

Sonia Gandhi appointed Mukherjee Minister of Defence of India when the Congress came to power in 2004. Mukherjee held the post until 2006. He expanded co-operation with the United States during his tenure. The Times of India reported on the Wikileaks cablesrelease and noted how " [United States] is full of praise for the "uniformed leadership" of Indian armed forces, especially Navy, as well as ministers like Mukherjee." Mukherjee in June 2005 had inked the 10-year Indo-US Defence Framework deal.

Foreign Minister

Mukherjee was appointed the External Affairs Minister of India in 1995. Under his leadership, India was made "Full Dialogue Partner" of ASEAN as part of the Look East foreign policyinitiated by Narasimha Rao. Mukherjee left the position 1996.

Mukherjee's second term began in 2006. He oversaw the successful signing of the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement with the US government and then with the Nuclear Suppliers Group, allowing India to participate in civilian nuclear trade in spite of not having signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Mukherjee left the position in 2009 to take over the Finance ministry.

Finance Minister

Pranab Mukherjee's first stint as the Finance minister of India was during the Indira Gandhi government in 1982. He presented his first annual budget in 1982–83. Mukherjee's first term was noted for his work in improving the finances of the government and for successfully returning the last instalment of India's first IMF loan. Mukherjee signed the letter appointing Manmohan Singh as the Governor of theReserve Bank of India in 1982. He was criticized for his supposed links with industralists such as Dhirubhai Ambani.

Mukherjee was removed from his position as Finance Minister by Rajiv Gandhi in 1984. Gandhi had wished to bring in his own team of staff to govern India. Mukherjee was removed from his position even though he was rated as the best Finance Minister in the World that year according to a survey of Euromoney magazine.

Mukherjee returned to handling the finance of India during the premiership of Narasimha Rao. He was appointed the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. Since the Prime Minister of India happens to be the ex-officio chairperson of Planning Commission of India, the position of the deputy chairperson has great significance. During Mukherjee's tenure 1991-96, Dr. Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister oversaw many economic reforms to end the Licence Raj system and help open the Indian economy.

Mukherjee again became the Finance Minister of India in 2009. He presented the annual budgets in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The 2010–11 budget included the country's first explicit target to cut public debt as a proportion of GDP and Mukherjee had targeted a budget deficit reduction to 4.1% of GDP in fiscal year 2012–13, from 6.5% in 2008–09.

Mukherjee implemented many tax reforms. He scrapped the Fringe Benefits Tax and the Commodities Transaction Tax. He implemented the Goods and Services Tax during his tenure. These reforms were well received by major corporate executives and economists. The introduction of retrospective taxation by Mukherjee, however, has been criticized by some economists.

Mukherjee expanded funding for several social sector schemes including the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. He also supported budget increases for improving literacy and health care. He expanded infrastructure programmes such as the National Highway Development Programme. Electricity coverage was also expanded during his tenure. Mukherjee also refirmed reaffirmed his commitment to the principle of fiscal prudence as some economists expressed concern about the rising fiscal defits during his tenure, the highest since 1991. Mukherjee declared the expansion in government spending was only temporary.

In 2010 Mukherjee was awarded "Finance Minister of the Year for Asia" by Emerging Markets, the daily newspaper of record for theWorld Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Mukherjee was praised for "the confidence [he] has inspired in key stakeholders, by virtue of his fuel price reforms, fiscal transparency and inclusive growth strategies".The Banker also recognised him as "Finance Minister of the Year."

The final years of Mukherjee in the finance ministry were not considered a success. The NDTV upon his resignation as Finance Minister in June 2012 wrote: "There [had] been a clamour from many quarters for a change in the Finance Ministry, with Mr Mukherjee having faced flak for several decisions where politics seemed to overwhelm economic imperatives."

Other positions

Mukherjee's positions in chronological order:

Union Minister of Industrial Development 1973-1974

Union Minister of Shipping and Transport 1974

Minister of State for Finance 1974-1975

Union Minister of Revenue and Banking 1975-1977

Treasurer of the Congress Party 1978-79

Treasurer of the All India Congress Committee 1978-79

Leader of the House of the Rajya Sabha 1980-85

Union Minister of Commerce and Steel and Mines 1980-1982

Union Minister of Finance 1982-1984

Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund 1982-1985

Board of Governors of the World Bank 1982-1985

Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank 1982-1984

Board of Governors of the African Development Bank 1982-1985

Union Minister of Commerce and Supply 1984

Chairman of the Campaign Committee of Congress for conducting national elections to Parliament 1984, 1991, 1996 and 1998

Chairman of the Group of 24 (a ministerial group attached to IMF and World Bank) 1984 and 2009–2012

President of the State Unit of Congress Party in West Bengal 1985 and 2000–10

Chairman of the Economic Advisory Cell of the AICC 1987-1989

Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission 1991-1996

Union Minister of Commerce 1993-1995

Union Minister of External Affairs 1995-1996

President, SAARC Council of Ministers' Conference 1995

General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee 1998-1999

Chairman of the Central Election Coordination Committee 1999-2012

Leader of the House of the Lok Sabha 2004-2012

Union Minister of Defence 2004-2006

Union Minister of External Affairs 2006-2009

Union Minister of Finance 2009-2012

Elected President of India on July 22, 2012

                                                                                                                                                                                                -From Wikipedia

Mukherjee secured 7,13,763 vote value in Presidential Election 2012, well ahead of the half-way mark of 5,25,140 in an electoral college of over 10.5 lakh. His rival PA Sangma, supported by some opposition parties including BJP, could manage get only 3,15,987 vote value.

He will be the 13th President of India and will take oath on Wednesday, July.25th. 

Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Sunday telephoned Pranab Mukherjee, who was elected as India's 13th President, to congratulate him and assured him she would attend his swearing-in July 25.

Well, it is a good news for Indians that a veteran politician with a good political image has become our president, but the matter to concern is whether he sacrificed again for somebodies political gain & whether his role as a president would be same as Pratibha Devisingh Patil? Pranabda, we will keep our eyes on you!