Pranab Mukherjee takes charge on a positive note

No regrets for not becoming the Prime Minister

“I have seen vast, perhaps unbelievable changes during the journey that has brought me from the flicker of a lamp in a small West Bengal village to the chandeliers of Delhi,” said Pranab Mukherjee, encapsulating his journey so far, as he was sworn in as the 13th President of the country on Wednesday.

Delivering his first speech as the President of India at the Central Hall of the Parliament House, Mukherjee, 76, also made it clear that he was content with being elected  the country’s new President and “have no regrets for not being able to make it to the office of the prime minister.”

“There is no greater reward for a public servant than to be elected as the first citizen of our Republic,” said Mukherjee, who was often described as the “best prime minister India never had.”

His five-decade-long experience as a parliamentarian, Union minister with key portfolios and as the chief troubleshooter of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government since 2004, prompted many to wonder if he ever had any prime-ministerial ambitions, too.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, both seated in the front row, joined the rest of the audience present in the Hall to applaud him.

Mukherjee’s ailing wife Subra was brought into the Central Hall in a wheel-chair. The other members of his family—son Abhijit, daughter Sharmistha and sisters, Krishna, Jharna and Swagata, as well as other relatives—were also present during the swearing-in ceremony. 

“It was indeed a very proud moment for all of us when baba (father) took oath as the President,” said Sharmistha, herself an eminent Kathak danseuse. “We came from Kolkata to witness this moment when our dada (elder brother) would take charge of the office as the first citizen of the country,” added Krishna, who teaches in a school in Kolkata.

Mukherjee’s octogenarian elder sister Annapurna, who lives in the family’s ancestral village in Kirnahar in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, however, could not make it to the capital. “Hope, he will be able to find time soon to go to Kirnahar and meet her,” said Jharna.

Bengal CM takes the last row

Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee was on Wednesday spotted sitting in the last row in the Central Hall of Parliament during the swearing-in ceremony of Pranab Mukherjee, reports DHNS from New Delhi.

Unlike her counterparts from other states or the leaders of other political parties, Banerjee preferred a seat on the very last row, ostensibly to make it a point that she was still carrying on with the “reluctance” with which her party TMC had to vote for the UPA’s candidate.  Yet, the TMC chief was at the centre of attention all through the ceremony. Railways Minister Mukul Roy and Minister of State for Urban Development Sougata Ray accompanied her.

She, however, greeted Mukherjee after the ceremony--just before the ceremonial procession escorting him left the Central Hall. Roy later told journalists that she invited the new President to visit West Bengal soon. Banerjee was seen chatting with NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s daughter and Lok Sabha member Supriya Sule. However, she was not seen exchanging pleasantries with Manmohan Singh or Sonia Gandhi.