What can one say about a personality that loomed large on the Indian national life for half a century and impacted it in numerous ways? When I joined the IFS, he was a minister. And when I met him in the South Block on the last day of my service, he was still a minister: the External Affairs Minister. In between, he was the Commerce Minister, Defence Minister and the Finance Minister. His luck and the Congress leadership after Indira Gandhi played trick with him. He rued the fact that it was he who signed the letter appointing Dr Manmohan Singh as the Governor of the RBI never imagining that one day, the latter will be his boss as the PM and he will be serving in his cabinet!
But credit goes to Dr Singh that he treated him with respect and made use of his vast administrative experience by making him Chairman of as many as 52 GoMs (Group of Ministers). In the end, the fortune again played a role, he ended up becoming the President, beating Dr Singh, at least, in order of precedence if not in exercise of authority.
His impeccable conduct of his constitutional duties earned him respect even from the opposition leaders including PM Modi. After the end of his tenure as the President he preferred to call him as Citizen Mukherjee.
He never shied away from discussion and debate and went to the RSS HQ in Nagpur to deliver a lecture in spite of the criticism from several Congress leaders including his own daughter .
Some images linger on in my mind. I met him briefly for the first time in Kuala Lumpur in 1978 when he had come as the Commerce Minister to address the CR’s meeting. At a session when our High Commissioner in Singapore started giving a long list of things which were wrong with Indian policies, he snapped at him: “Do you think I have flown from India to listen to all this? We expect you to tell us what can be done to expand India’s trade ,businesses and investment with the country of your posting. If you can’t do that, the government is wasting money on you.” The High Commissioner was left red faced.
When I was the Dean of the Foreign Service Institute, he attended a few valedictory dinners for foreign diplomats at the end of the professional course for them. When the FSI was bringing out the book, India of My Dreams, we requested him to write a preface. He was aware that we had organised lectures by 29 eminent persons in 12 months to expose the budding diplomats to their thoughts and ideas and broaden their mental horizon, he wrote in his own hand, “These lectures constituted an integral part of the training of India’s diplomats.”
In August 2007 he came to inaugurate the new premises of the FSI on Baba Kharag Singh Marg in Ber Sarai; he also unveiled a bust of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in the entrance lobby. I had,in fact, extended an invitation to Prime Minister Mammohan Singh to be the Chief Guest. But he sent the file to the EAM, Mukherjee, asking him to do the honour.
After my retirement, when I edited the book, India & the World Through the Eyes of Indian Diplomats, which was released by Vice President Hamid Ansari, President Pranab Mukherjee agreed to receive a copy of the book at the Rashtarpati Bhawan. He said he liked that kind of book.
In August 2019 he delivered a lecture at the NMML on the topic, Is the Gandhian path the right way forward in the conflict-torn world today?, organised by IAFA to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
My most vivid memory relates to the Indian Express Adda at Hotel Claridges last year where he had come to talk about the second volume of his memoir. During the Q&A session, I asked him if it was appropriate for him and other ministers to go to the airport in 2011 to receive Baba Ramdev. It seemed he was taken aback by my question. After a pause, he replied: In hindsight, I would now say it was an error of judgement! Hats off to Citizen Mukherjee to admit an error of judgement in public.
The country will remain indebted to Pranab Da for his invaluable services and he will be remembered by millions of his admirers.
May his soul rest in peace!