Wait for another Pranab Mukherjee to become president may take a long time
With 51 years in public life, he has had a ring-side view of the hurly-burly of Indian politics: as a parliamentarian for 37 years and a Union minister for 22 years and nine months. He has worked closely with four prime ministers, led both Houses of the Parliament for 14 years. The last five years, the crowning glory of his time, he has been the president of India.
Pranab Mukherjee, the 13th president of India — the most political man of Indian politics — will step out of the hallowed portals of the Rashtrapati Bhavan on July 25.
Going by statistics
Statistically, his term as a president has not set any milestones: he has not been the oldest, the youngest, the shortest-serving or president with the longest tenure. He has not come with those presidential “firsts”: Muslim, Sikh, woman, Dalit, philosopher or scientist. He has been one of the very few presidents to have penned books while at the helm, but not as many as Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the 11th president of India, who wrote almost a book a year.
Mukherjee has presided over a significant change of regime — from UPA to NDA — but not as many as Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, the 6th president, who worked with three prime ministers — Morarji Desai, Charan Singh and Indira Gandhi — between 1977 and 1982.
Unmatched savvy
Yet, it will be difficult for his successor to hold a candle to Pranab Mukherjee, his unmatched political career, savvy or clout. In 70 years of independence, he has been just the 5th president to have seen and understood power from the inside and been in a position to exercise it. And, he is possibly the only one who could have been a prime minister.
He has known and befriended far too many Indian and world leaders — making him win the presidential race in 2012, with even NDA MLAs cross-voting for him, and keeping him active in external relations, even as a president. That has also allowed him to speak his mind on several occasions: against intolerance and dysfunctional Parliament sessions, for democratic plurality, divergence and debate.
In March this year, at the India Today Conclave, he said: “One of the principal lessons India’s history teaches us is that united we stand, divided we fall. Our past is replete with examples of how we have fallen when we failed to act unitedly and how we achieved wonders when we acted in unison. Our freedom fighters passed the Quit India Resolution in 1942, and within five years, forced the British to grant us independence.
It will be impossible for us to achieve the progress that we seek, if in our country man turns against man in the name of religion, caste or politics."
Open doors
It will also be difficult to match up to his work as a president: he is the first to open up that ivory tower of power and privilege on Raisina Hills and put out the welcome mat to the common man, or woman. The underground museum at Rashtrapati Bhavan, covering 1.30 lakh square feet across three floors, and done up at Rs 80 crore, was opened to the public last year. India’s only underground museum, it houses exciting moments of history, hi-tech storytelling and virtual reality exhibits, along with 11,000 gift items the presidents of India have received over the years.
He is also the first to roll out the red carpet to artists, writers and scholars. In-residence programmes chalked out by the president have allowed scores of talented Indians to stay at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, wake up to bird songs, soak in the serene green silence and get their creative juices flowing. Last year, around this time, writer Amitav Ghosh and wife Deborah Baker had enjoyed a hearty time with the president and his daughter, Sharmistha, as writer-in-residence.
Such an honour and pleasure for us to have lunch with President Pranab Mukherjee and his daughter @Sharmistha_GK pic.twitter.com/JAnJEwPk3C
— Amitav Ghosh (@GhoshAmitav) July 11, 2016
Mukherjee has also got 13 books written about the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the last five years.
What else?
There is something to be said for a president who can allude to Rabindranath Tagore and William Shakespeare at the drop of a hat, mention Adam Smith and Jeremy Bentham chapter and verse, tell political stories that everyone else has forgotten, use numbers and stats to explain current affairs or quote poetry to prime-time India.
We may have to wait a long time before another Pranab Mukherjee becomes our president.