Former president Pranab Mukherjee is being praised for his public service after he died in a Delhi hospital at 84.
Mukherjee, whose career spanned more than five decades, served as a Congress party politician, parliamentarian respected across party lines, minister in charge of the most demanding portfolios, and finally as the President of India. Mukherjee was a minister in every Congress government since 1971. As defence minister, he was responsible for increasing the military budget; as minister of external affairs, he played a crucial role in the signing of Indo-US Civil Nuclear Agreement in 2008; and as finance minister in