Former President Pranab Mukharjee Passes Away At 84

 

The former president of India between 2012 and 2017, Pranab Mukherjee, died this Monday on 31st August, at the age of 84, due to his organ failures. He was admitted in Army Hospital(Research and Referral) Hospital in New Delhi. After undergoing a brain surgery at the beginning of the month, former president developed a lung infection and slipped into a coma.

 

 

“With great regret, we inform you that my father Pranab Mukherjee has just passed away despite the best efforts of the hospital doctors and the prayers of people all over India. Thank you all,” posted and confirmed the death, the politician Abhijit Mukherjee (Son of Former President Pranab Mukharjee), on the social network Twitter.

 

 

 

 

The former Indian president was admitted at the Delhi Army Hospital on August 10th to undergo surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain. The same day, it was he himself who announced through his social networks that in the tests prior to hospital admission he had tested positive for COVID-19 and asked those who had contact with him during the previous days to isolate themselves and take the test.

 

 

After the surgery, the hospital reported that Mukherjee was in a deep coma and subsequently his health continued to deteriorate, as he developed a lung infection and kidney dysfunction, for which he required respiratory assistance. From the day he admitted, social networks have been turned into messages of encouragement and good wishes for the former president, asking for his speedy recovery. The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, was one of the first to convey his condolences to the family of his predecessor and to highlight the important legacy that Mukherjee left in Indian history.

 

 

“His disappearance marks the passing of an era. A colossus of public life, he served Mother India with the spirit of a sage. The nation is in mourning for the loss of one of its favorite children. Condolences to his family, friends and  all citizens, “Kovind said on his official Twitter account.

 

 

 

 

Mukherjee was born in 1935 to a middle-class family in the Bengal region of northeastern India, and served as a teacher and journalist before deciding to enter politics within the socialist and secular Congress party of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.  Since 1969, the date he entered into Parliament, Mukherjee did almost everything, whether at the head, successively, of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Finance or Defense, or deciding the economic plans of the country in the Planning Commission.

 

 

His five decades of experience earned him the respect and recognition of the main opposition parties, although his tenure was not without controversy due to his alleged relationship with the important Indian industrial group Reliance. Those who knew him highlight his intellect, his active mind and work capacity, which he himself confirmed when he assured that he could hardly find time for his family – two sons and a daughter – and that he often limited himself to giving his wife a good night kiss.

 

 

On July 25, 2012, at the age of 76, he was elected as the thirteenth president of India, a formal position and without executive functions in accordance with the country’s Constitution. Mukherjee served in this role between diplomatic trips to multiple countries from the Rashtrapati Bhavan Palace, a 340-room British Imperial-era residence located high in the Delhi hills of Raisina.

 

 

After watching over the health for five years – as he himself defined in statements on one occasion – Indian democracy, he was succeeded by Ram Nath Kovind, a member of the marginalized Dalit or “untouchable” community, who occupies the symbolic position since July 25, 2017. At that time, he decided to withdraw from political life due to some health complications derived from his advanced age, although he continued to appear sporadically at events and participate in public life.