13th President of India Pranab Mukherjee passed away on Monday afternoon after he developed a lung infection at the Army’s Research and Referral hospital where he was admitted for a brain surgery. He had also tested positive for COVID-19. Abhijit Mukherjee, Mukherjee’s son and former Lok Sabha MP, announced his father’s death on Twitter on Monday evening, “despite the best efforts of doctors and prayers of ordinary Indians throughout the country, this had come to pass”.
With a Heavy Heart , this is to inform you that my father Shri #PranabMukherjee has just passed away inspite of the best efforts of Doctors of RR Hospital & prayers ,duas & prarthanas from people throughout India !
I thank all of You 🙏— Abhijit Mukherjee (@ABHIJIT_LS) August 31, 2020
Personal Life
Mukherjee married to Suvra Mukherjee on 13th July 1957. He had two sons and a daughter. Mukherjee’s wife died on 18th August 2015, at the age of 74 due to heart failure. His hobbies are reading, gardening and music. His elder son, Abhijit Mukherjee, is a Congress MP from city Jangipur, West Bengal. His daughter Sharmistha is a Kathak dancer and politician of the Indian National Congress (INC).
Walk Through Pranab Mukherjee’s Long Career Journey
He served as the 13th President of India from the year 2012 to 2017. In a political journey of around five decades, Mukherjee has been a senior leader in the Congress Party and has served many posts in Government of India. Before being elected in president post in 2012. Mukherjee served as Finance Minister from 2009 to 2012.
He was awarded Bharat Ratna in the year 2019 by the 14th President of India, Ram Nath Kovind. Mukherjee’s political journey began in the year 1969, by the successful Midnapore by-election campaign of an independent candidate, V. K. Krishna Menon. Mukherjee became a member of the Rajya Sabha in July 1969. Mukherjee was re-elected for the house in the years 1975, 1981, 1993 and 1999.
The #BharatRatna for me is also indeed an acknowledgement of the millions who strive every day to make Bharat – the diverse, plural, compassionate and inclusive idea that it is.#CitizenMukherjee https://t.co/JvUxvjrZaV
— Pranab Mukherjee Legacy Foundation- PMLF (@CitiznMukherjee) August 8, 2019
Mukherjee’s was appointed Union Deputy Minister of Industrial Development in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet in the year 1973. Mukherjee emerged unscathed and rose out as a Finance Minister for two year time period of 1982 to 1984. As the Finance Minister, Mukherjee signed the letter appointing Manmohan Singh as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
In the year 1986, Mukherjee founded another party, the Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress (RSC), in West Bengal. The RSC and INC merged in the year 1987. He became the leader of the House in Lok Sabha, and Manmohan Singh appointed him as the Defence Minister in the year 2004. He won a Lok Sabha seat from Jangipur in West Bengal in the year 2009. He was nominated as the presidential candidate of UPA on 15th June 2012. To file his nomination for the presidential poll on 28th June, Mukherjee had resigned from the government on 26th June 2012.
PM Narendra Modi, who had, in the past, compared Mr Mukherjee to a father figure in his life as he moved to Delhi from Gujarat as Prime Minister, said that India grieved Mr Mukherjee’s passing. “India grieves the passing away of Bharat Ratna Shri Pranab Mukherjee. He has left an indelible mark on the development trajectory of our nation. A scholar par excellence, a towering statesman, he was admired across the political spectrum and by all sections of society,” he said.
