A statesman for all seasons: Pranab Mukherjee (1935-2020)

Sitting on the verandah of his home in New Delhi in the early 1970s, a young Indian lawmaker saw horses from the Rashtrapati Bhavan gallop past. He jokingly told his sister that he would like to be a presidential horse in his next life. An indulgent Annapurna Banerjee, older to the lawmaker by a decade, had predicted that he would be the president one day.

When he did occupy India's highest constitutional office of the President in July 2012 -- becoming the first Bengali to do so -- he could not but recall during a TV interview what his sister had told him.

That was the story of the steady rise of Pranab Mukherjee, who passed away at a hospital in New Delhi today, capping more than half a century in politics that saw him donning several roles -- as a Congress party politician rising from the ranks, cabinet minister, a trouble-shooter for the party-led government and above all a statesman and a man for all seasons.

But behind all the accolades (Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award and epithets like elder statesman) for Pranab lies is his realisation that he was in the final analysis a Bengali to the core. "Aami Bangalee chhilam, achhi, o thakbo" he once said at a felicitation function in Kolkata some years ago.

Born at Mirati village in Birbhum district of West Bengal -- son of freedom fighters Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee and Rajlakshmi -- on December 11, 1935, it was Pranab Mukherjee's search for his quintessentially Bengali roots that made him a key figure in shaping India's Bangladesh policy since 1970s.

It was his search for Bengali roots that compelled him to undertake his first visit as Indian President to Bangladesh less than a year after taking up the post in March, 2013 when he was conferred the 'Swadhinata Sammanona' by the then Bangladesh President Zillur Rahman. He also enjoyed "jamai aador" at his in-laws' ancestral house in Bhadrabila village under Narail district.

Mukherjee's father was a Congress leader who endured great hardship including imprisonment several times for his role in India's struggle for independence.

Pranab Mukherjee was always known as the quintessential man Friday of the Congress party. True, he was rewarded as the President for his contribution but not fully trusted enough to be India's first Bengali Prime Minister.

His political journey started when Indira Gandhi spotted him during a by-election campaign in Midnapore in West Bengal where he was former Defence Minister VK Krishna Menon's poll agent.

Impressed with his political acumen, Indira Gandhi inducted Pranab Mukherjee into the Congress central leadership and he began his parliamentary journey through the Rajya Sabha in 1969. There have been many firsts since then for the man popularly known as "Pranab Da".

He became India's youngest Finance Minister in 1982 at the age of 47. From 2004, he went on to head three crucial ministries -- External Affairs, Defence and Finance. He will also go down in history as the only non-Prime Minister who was the leader of the Lok Sabha for eight years.

Known for his ability to build consensus across party lines, Pranab Mukherjee was heading 24 of 39 Groups of Ministers when he became President in 2012.

That is why friends and critics agree that there was enough politics left in Pranab when he announced his retirement from active politics in the form of the Presidency.

Mukherjee's lasting contribution as Finance Minister includes the introduction of an egregious tax change -- a retrospective amendment to the Income Tax Act that targeted Vodafone and allowed closed tax cases to be reopened. That amendment shook foreign investors' confidence in India as a safe investment destination, experts say.

A hard taskmaster known for adherence to rules and protocols, an avid reader and history aficionado, Mukherjee ensured his mark on the presidency.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him a father figure who hand-held him through the maze of national governance after he became the prime minister in 2014.

Pranab Mukherjee assumed office as the 13th President of India on July 25, 2012, crowning a political career of over five decades of exemplary service to the nation in Government as well as Parliament.

A man of unparalleled experience in governance, he was elected to the Upper House of the Parliament (Rajya Sabha) five times from 1969 and twice to the Lower House of the Parliament (Lok Sabha) from 2004. He was a member of the Congress Working Committee, the highest policy making body of the party for 23 years.

During the period 2004-2012, Pranab Mukherjee was instrumental in spearheading critical decisions of the Congress-led UPA government on a range of issues like right to information, right to employment, food security, energy security, information technology and telecommunication, and metro rail.

In seventies and eighties, he was instrumental in setting up the Regional Rural Banks (1975) and the EXIM Bank of India as well as National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (1981-82). Mukherjee was also author of a modified formula for resource sharing between the Centre and the States in 1991 which came to be known as the Gadgil-Mukherjee formula.

Mukherjee acquired a Master's degree in History and Political Science as well as a degree in Law from the University of Calcutta. He then embarked on his professional life as a college teacher and journalist in Kolkata.

Inspired by his father's contribution to the national movement, Mukherjee in 1969 plunged into full time public life following his election to the Rajya Sabha.

Mukherjee has authored several books on the Indian Economy and on Nation Building. The many awards and honours conferred on him include India's second highest civilian award, Padma Vibhusan in 2008, the Best Parliamentarian Award in 1997 and Best Administrator in India Award in 2011.

He was the recipient of Doctor of Laws of the University of Dhaka in 2013 and Doctorate by the University of Calcutta in 2014.

He married Suvra Mukherjee on September 17, 1940 and his wife was an accomplished singer of Rabindra Sangeet and an artist.

A few months before he stepped down as President, he was asked what he will do hereafter. "I will melt into the masses" was his prompt response. Melting into the masses was ironical for a man who was never a politician with a mass base.