Very few people get the kind of acceptance that Pranab Mukherjee received during his 50-year journey in Indian politics. That is why not only Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but even Manmohan Singh looked at him as a guardian, and for the rest of the country he was the famous Pranab da.
Pranab da is no more. For the past several days, news about his worrying health situation kept coming. But his well-wishers believed this time too he would overcome it, just like he did with most of the political challenges he faced in his career. But that was not to be. At 85, Pranab da has left us and a bright star has just faded from the sky of Indian politics.
Though Pranab da spent most of his political career in the Congress, he had his well-wishers in all parties and his personal equations were great. When Narendra Modi became Prime Minister for the first time in 2014, Pranab Mukherjee administered to him the oath of office. Three years later, when his tenure was to end as President in 2017, Modi wrote him a letter which Mukherjee himself shared on his Twitter handle.
Modi had written: “Pranab da, our political journeys took shape in different political parties. Our ideologies, at times, have been different…Yet, such is the strength of your intellect and wisdom that we were able to work together with synergy…Three years ago, I came to New Delhi as an outsider. The task before me was huge. In these times, you have always been a father figure and a mentor to me.”
This letter from Modi says it all about Pranab Mukherjee’s personality. Ideologies could be different, but Mukherjee was never found lacking while keeping in mind the constitutional dignity and personal relationships – not even with his arch rivals. It was well known about him that when he wished to eat fish, he would head towards LK Advani’s house.
Pranab Mukherjee had achieved that stature in Indian politics that nobody, neither a politician nor a journalist, ever felt any inconvenience in calling him Pranab da. For this precise reason, even after his death, it is easier to call him Pranab da and it does not seem to be a forced informality. The country honoured him in another way in 2019 when he was conferred the Bharat Ratna by PM Modi. It was strong evidence of his personality that even a PM from a different political stream saw him as a father figure and he was called by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to Nagpur to deliver a lecture.
Pranab da’s stature in politics and his expanse of knowledge was so huge that when he became defence minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2004, he was addressed as ‘sir’ by the PM during some of his cabinet meetings in the beginning. How could Manmohan Singh forget that he was made the governor of the Reserve Bank of India in 1982 when Pranab Mukherjee was the finance minister under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. This too was a coincidence that when Pranab da became finance minister for the second time in January 2009, Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister, and he remained on this post till 2012 when he was made President.
A visibly stern-looking Pranab Mukherjee was very soft on the inside. Not only leaders and officials, even journalists were not comfortable meeting him without any preparation. It was unbearable for Pranab da to converse with a person who talked silly. He allowed people to ask any question, but he always answered the ones he liked. But if you tried to corner him on any question, it was not acceptable to him and he would admonish you. Many high-profile journalists of the country have experienced this on several occasions.
It was Indira Gandhi to whom he owed his rise in politics. After her assassination, Mukherjee was considered the most deserving successor. As was natural, he could not be on good terms with Rajiv Gandhi who became Prime Minister after his mother’s assassination. Mukherjee had to leave the party that sent him to the Rajya Sabha in 1969 for the first time. He had been like a shadow of Indira Gandhi and figured in each of her cabinets and was with her through thick and thin of Indian politics. In 1986, he formed his own regional party called Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress, which he merged with the Congress three years later and returned to the fold.
Once again, Pranab da’s political career was back on track. When Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991 during the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, this brought PV Narasimha Rao to the post of PM. Rao and Pranab Mukherjee were great friends. Mukherjee would always tell this story to journalists who were close to him that it was only Rao who addressed him as Pranab. Sonia Gandhi, like any other leader, called him Pranab da and, after he got soft admonishment from Mukherjee, PM Manmohan Singh started calling him Pranab ji.
Narasimha Rao made Pranab da deputy chairman of the Planning Commission in the beginning and then, at the fag end of his tenure as PM, inducted him as external affairs minister in his cabinet. He occupied the ministry a second time in 2006 under Manmohan Singh. Be it as defence minister, finance minister or external affairs minister, he had a firm grip on the portfolio he held. It was famous about him that he even remembered what note he put on a particular file. Under Manmohan Singh when the Left parties were lending support to the government, Mukherjee headed most of the groups of ministers. It was left to him to keep leaders of the Left parties mollified.
Pranab da’s parliamentary career was a lengthy one. He entered the Rajya Sabha in 1969 for the first time and barring a few years of interregnum, he remained part of one of the Houses till 2012. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1969, 1975, 1981, 1993 and 1998, and fought two parliamentary elections from Jangipur and won. In 2012, after becoming President, he had a formal relationship with Parliament, as the Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha and President are key constituents of Parliament. He had been the leader of both the Houses and, as President, he got the opportunity to address the joint session of the Houses. In Indian politics, this is a unique achievement that Pranab da has.
Pranab da was the symbol of constitutional dignity. A smoking pipe dangling from his lips used to mark most of his photographs in the early days of his politics. His mentor Indira Gandhi used to say that “Pranab Babu inhabits lots of secrets, but even if you press him hard, what will come out of his mouth is the smoke and not a secret”. That is how much she trusted Pranab da.
Pranab Mukherjee harboured innumerable secrets and his mind was full of all kinds of information and files. It was said about him that when he was finance minister, he used to analyse the days of the previous finance ministers by taking into account the days and dates of their tenure in the ministry. He used to burn the midnight oil. In the party also, most of the political resolutions were left to him to write. He was probably the only leader who could tell what was present in each of the political resolutions of the party in the past six decades.
With his head always buried in files and the challenges the country faced, he found little time to watch films. It was famous about him that in his Budget speech, he quoted nuggets about films such as Raja Harishchandra to Ra.One, but he wasn’t aware that Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan had anything to do with the latter. When he was conversing with Bengali journalists, such anecdotes used to cross his lips. Journalist Bijendra Singh recollects one such occasion – Pranab Da had watched the screening of the film Rang De Basanti arranged by his ministry when he was defence minister. There was some controversy about some of the scenes, particularly about the army. At that time, he had watched the film with the-then chairperson of the Censor Board, Sharmila Tagore, and actor Aamir Khan. Such occasions were very rare in his life as it was difficult for him to steal some time from his busy schedule.
Pranab da was not artificial in any way. He did not trumpet any fake love for secularism despite being a great practitioner of it. For him, secularism was not about keeping distance from his faith which many leaders of his party did just for the public. That was precisely the reason why every year during Durga Puja, he used to travel a thousand kilometres to his native place Mirati which is in the Birbhum district of West Bengal. There he used to perform Chandi Path for many days, dressed in traditional attire. This continued even when he was President of the country. He was a deeply religious person in his private life and performing daily puja was a routine he religiously followed.
In politics, people usually fall prey to astrology. But for Pranab da, his being religious had nothing to do with blind faith. That was the reason why he was a resident of the 13, Talkatora Road government bungalow during most of his five-decade-long political career, and he had the number 13 chamber allotted to him as minister in Parliament. Most of the people consider the number 13 inauspicious but not Pranab da; it was a lucky number for him. So much so that he was the 13th President of India.
In his long political career, Pranab da had very good relations with journalists. He never allowed anybody to take any liberty, but he used to talk freely about his political life when he had time. There were some very fortunate journalists, who got the opportunity to enjoy eating fish with him and shared some personal moments. Even after he became President, he kept meeting with journalists. He knew about the practical compulsions that journalists faced and used to break some big news to them without keeping in mind their status or seniority. But he lost his cool if anyone intruded.
Pranab da has left us and only his memories remain. But few in Indian politics could claim the kind of acceptance that he commanded. How many people can one find in the cut-throat competitive world of Indian politics who is called ‘Dada’ by his arch rivals and that too till the end? Perhaps this was the biggest capital that Pranab da had – the capacity to make everyone his own. That was the reason why, despite being a diabetic, he accepted rosogolla offered by PM Modi on his birthday. Pranab da’s sweet memories and his huge achievements as a practitioner of Indian politics will waft in the air for a long, long time.
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