North Block bids adieu to Mukherjee

Everyone from top bureaucrats to visitors made a beeline in front of Pranab?s office as he got ready to say goodbye

The staff had turned up in their best and the lensmen were all loaded and ready, but before the moment could be captured, Pranab Mukherjee interrupted. “Where is Joshi?” he asked, inquiring about his peon, who was missing from the frame. Joshi went on leave because he could not bear to see his minister leaving.

Emotions ran high right up the ranks, but unlike Joshi, not many chose to skip the farewell. Everyone from top bureaucrats to visitors made a beeline in front of Mukherjee’s office as the 77-year-old got ready to say goodbye to North Block—his office for the last three years.

 

“I will miss my colleagues in the ministry of finance. And, I will also miss not being stopped while getting into my car and getting out of my car in front of the ministry of finance by you all (reporters),” Mukherjee told a huge gathering of mediapersons, who thronged Gate No 2 of North Block.

Mukherjee started his day at 6 am with a morning walk in his lawns. He read newspapers for a good half-an-hour as he had four cups of tea. He then chanted the ‘Chandi Path’ (a prayer) before proceeding for office.

The main corridor of the finance minister’s office was abuzz with activity since morning. Mukherjee’s last day in the office started with a group photo with his staff members. A fleet of photographers was summoned to capture the “special moments” with bureaucrats and journalists.(PRANAB’S LEGACY)

The rest of the day was spent meeting visitors, replying to some letters and finishing some pending jobs. He wrote to Union Home Minister P Chidam-baram, urging him to provide security to Trinamool Congress MP Suvendu Adhikari, who is facing a life threat.

All five secretaries of the finance ministry, additional secretaries and some joint secretaries came to Mukherjee’s office as the clock showed 4 pm. Finance Secretary R S Gujral and Mukherjee’s advisor in the finance ministry, Omita Paul (who also resigned on Tuesday), presented him with bouquets.

Yesterday, the officials had already given a formal farewell to Mukherjee. In the evening, a tea party was hosted by officials in the rank of joint secretary and above. Later, secretaries and additional secretaries gave a dinner party at the India International Centre in his honour. Mukherjee became nostalgic as he narrated stories of his first stint as finance minister in the 1980s.

As the secretaries praised Mukherjee as a boss, he said he had got more from the civil servants than he had given. “I’ll never forget what I have learnt from you,” one official quoted him as saying.

The day also marked the end of four decades of a political career when Mukherjee resigned as the finance minister at about 5 pm. “It is not the end, it’s the beginning… beginning of a new life,” murmured an official as the “president-in-waiting” left for the prime minister’s residence after addressing the media for one last time in front of North Block.

“Today, I stand ready to embark on a new journey. I feel honoured and humbled on my nomination as a candidate to contest the presidential election… I also feel a tinge of sentiment at the thought of leaving behind my life as a political activist, spanning over four decades,” he said.

Perhaps for the first time, bureaucrats and other staff from the ministry came out in such large numbers to bid adieu to their minister, who had told them in the morning: “After 4 pm, I’m not coming here.”

A close aide of Mukherjee said he had got mixed feelings on Tuesday. “He is happy being nominated for president’s post, but somewhere inside there is this feeling that the long association with the Congress party has come to an end.”

Some of the officials from the finance minister’s office are likely to follow him to Rashtrapati Bhavan.

KEY MILESTONES

Jul 1969: Elected to Rajya Sabha

Jan 1973-Jan 1974: Union Deputy Minister, Industrial Development

Jan 1974-Oct 1974: Union Deputy Minister, Shipping and Transport

Oct 1974-Dec 1975: Union Minister of State, Finance

Jul 1975: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha 
(2nd term)

Dec 1975-Mar 1977: Union Minister, Revenue and Banking 
(Independent Charge)

1978-1980: Deputy Leader, Congress Party, Rajya Sabha

Jan 1980-Jan 1982: Union Minister, Commerce and Steel and Mines

1980 -1985: Leader of the House, 
Rajya Sabha

Aug 1981: Re-elected to Rajya 
Sabha (3rd term)

Jan 1982-Dec 1984: Cabinet Minister, Finance, additional charge of Ministry of Commerce and Supply

1985: President, West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee for about a year

1987-1989: Chairman, Economic Advisory Cell, AICC

Jun 1991-May 1996: Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission

Jan 1993-Feb 1995: Union Cabinet Minister, Commerce

1993: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha (4th term)

Feb 1995-May 1996: Union Cabinet Minister, External Affairs

1997: Chairman, Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment & Forest

1999: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha 
(5th term)

1998 -1999:  General Secretary, AICC

Jun 1998-May 2004: Chairman, Standing Committee on Home Affairs

Aug 2000 till 2010: President, West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee

May 13, 2004: Elected to 14th Lok Sabha

May 23, 2004- Oct 24, 2006: Union Cabinet Minister, Defence

May 25, 2004: Leader of the House, 
Lok Sabha

Oct 25, 2006- 23 May, 2009: Union Cabinet Minister, External Affairs

Jan 24 -May 23, 2009: Ministry of Finance (additional charge)

May 20,2009: Re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha (2nd term)

May 26, 2009: Leader of the House, Lok Sabha

May 23, 2009 onwards: Union Cabinet Minister, Finance

June 26, 2012: Resigned as Finance Minister