BackPranab Mukherjee: In memory of a truly remarkable individual
A personal tribute to a former president of the country who was often described as the best prime minister India never had
PremiumA lot has already been written about former president of India Pranab Mukherjee (1935-2020). His life straddled many areas of public policy and this is not the occasion to reflect on his economic legacy and imprint, spanning the licence-permit raj to liberalization-globalization. Many people have interacted with him in some capacity. A less visible hat he wore was that of chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI). He held the position for a long time, between 2004 and 2012. When he was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2019, its director Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay and I, as ISI president, thought it would be a good idea to honour Pranab Babu. Accordingly, we went and met him. But the visit to ISI Kolkata was postponed. It wasn’t quite appropriate that an ex-president should travel to states in the midst of a general election. After the polls, we went and met him again, on 20 August 2019. Apart from the felicitation ceremony, Pranab Mukherjee would naturally speak. What on? As we discussed this, he spoke to us for about an hour, articulating his thoughts on governance and economic development, pre-1991 planning, post-1991 reforms, and the roles of the Planning Commission (he was its deputy chairman between 1991 and 1996) and Niti Aayog. There wasn’t a single piece of paper in sight and he reeled off names, facts and numbers without the need to consult any, illustrating the prodigious memory he was famous for.
“This is almost like the talk itself," I remarked. “We will think of a suitable title around this theme." So it was agreed. At the time of the Puja season, he invariably went to his ancestral home in Mirati village, West Bengal. We would try and weave the felicitation and talk around that trip. That idea didn’t work out. Organizing something like this in Kolkata during Pujas is impossible. Eventually, the event was held on 12 December 2019. As he walked in, Pranab Mukherjee greeted several people in the audience. Because of his West Bengal and ISI connections, he knew several of them by name. The talk started. He told us he had no desire to not continue as chairman of ISI. However, once he became president of the country, he was told it wouldn’t be advisable. He told us he had a written text as his speech. However, given the occasion, he would ignore it and speak extempore, instead, on the state of the Indian economy and governance. It was another masterly exposition, not a rehash of what he had discussed with Sanghamitra and me. A pity there was no recording of either. Yes, he had a point of view that one didn’t necessarily agree with. Yes, he pulled my leg (since I was an obvious representative of the present government), and that made headlines the next day (at least in Bengali newspapers). But the point of relevance here is the superb overview he offered . I don’t think any of his earlier books does justice to that perspective. The Turbulent Years: 1980-1996 and The Coalition Years: 1996-2012 are more autobiographical and political. The conversation and ISI talk were the words of a former deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, and rare was—or is—a person with that kind of oversight.
Among several people, I have noticed that a deterioration in health doesn’t follow a linear trajectory. Once it crosses a threshold, it declines fast. People suddenly seem to age. While I haven’t had the opportunity to observe Pranab Babu from close quarters, between August and December 2019, that seemed to happen to him. Perhaps it was the travel. August 2019 was at his home in Delhi, December 2019 was after travelling to Kolkata. But in December 2019, he didn’t look all that well. As he sat next to me on the dais and reached for a glass of water, his hand trembled a little. “Are you fine?" I asked. “Yes, just old age," he remarked. There were three pens in his pocket—blue, black and red. The red was striking. “Is that Sheaffer?" I asked. Yes, it was. He said that he loved Sheaffer pens. Covid-19 may have triggered matters. But it was just a matter of time. People who recognize that inevitability find peace within themselves and handle ageing gracefully. Not everyone can do this. I think Pranab Mukherjee could, and his faith and devotion, and reading of Chandi, helped.
Early in 2006, I was with a chamber of commerce and industry. Every industry chamber organizes events on the day of the Union budget. We decided to do something novel, in addition to the usual discussions. We got some students from a college of art to draw cartoons of every finance minister since R.K. Shanmukham Chetty (1947-48) and put up an exhibition. None had name tags. You had to guess. On the evening before that year’s budget, you couldn’t possibly get the incumbent finance minister (P. Chidambaram then) to inaugurate the show. Therefore, we requested Pranab Mukherjee, who was defence minister at the time, and he readily agreed. Among all the people who attended the exhibition, Pranab Babu was the only one who got all the names right. He stumbled a bit with K. C. Neogy, but eventually got it through a process of elimination. I can’t think of too many people who’d be able to do that. For me, Pranab Mukherjee’s death also represents the end of an era. It isn’t so much about what he did during the Emergency, as commerce minister in early 1980s, as finance minister in the 1980s and 2000s, or as the best prime minister India never had. It is about reminiscences of such a remarkable individual.
Bibek Debroy is chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister.
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