History lessons

As a politician, an MP and a minister, Pranab Mukherjee impressed most of those he met over his decades-long career with his impressive and accurate memory for dates, events and details. More than one colleague has likened him to a “walking encyclopaedia”; and Mr Mukherjee, himself, is known to digress into the historical context of an event while journalists or civil servants are waiting breathlessly for a quote or an instruction. This tendency was amply illustrated when he emerged after filing his nomination papers for president. All those gathered there prepared for an unusual event — an active politician’s first statement on retiring from party politics while simultaneously campaigning for the country’s highest post. Mr Mukherjee looked over his glasses at the media and informed them: “This will be the fourteenth presidential election.” After a moment, he added: “Although it will be the thirteenth president who will be sworn in. This is because Rajendra Babu [Dr Rajendra Prasad] served as president twice.”