He is someone who needs no introduction. The 13th president of India, Pranab Mukherjee, was born on December 11 in 1935. He hails from Mirati village in Birbhum district, West Bengal. Mukherjee has been an influential politician, instrumental in solving many provincial problems of the Congress as well as the Government of India.
On the occasion of Pranab Mukherjee’s 84th birthday. We bring you some interesting, yet lesser known facts about him. Take a look:
#1 Mukherjee was once a professor at the Vidyanagar College in South 24 Paraganas in West Bengal where he taught Political Science in 196.
#2 Before entering politics, Mukherjee worked as a journalist with a Bengali newspaper, ‘Desher dak’.
#3 Indira Gandhi introduced Mukherjee to politics in 1969 and helped him get elected to Rajya Sabha on Congress ticket.
#4 After Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984, he considered himself as the rightful successor. But he was sidelined by Rajiv Gandhi’s government.
#5 He formed his own party, named, Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress. The party in 1989 merged with the Congress after an agreement with Rajiv Gandhi.
#6 Rajiv Gandhi removed Pranab Mukherjee from his position of Finance Minister in 1984 as Gandhi wished to bring his own team. Surprisingly, as per a survey held by the Euromoney magazine in the same year, Mukherjee was rated as the best Finance Minister in the World.
#7 As a President, Mukherjee has rejected 24 mercy please including that of Yakub Memon, Ajmal Kasab, and Afzal Guru.