President Pranab Mukherjee celebrated his 81st birthday on Sunday, December 11.
On his birthday he will attend a number of programmes, including release of three books and launch of a campaign organised by Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi in which about 5,000 children will participate.
Born at Mirati in West Bengal on December 11, 1935, Mukherjee assumed office as the 13th President of India on July 25, 2012, crowning a political career of over five decades of exemplary service to the nation in government as well as Parliament.
On his 81st birthday we bring you some lesser known facts about him:
Apart from being a diplomat, Mukherjee was once a professor andtaught Political Science at the Vidyanagar College in South 24 Paraganas, West Bengal, in 1963.
He had also worked as a journalist with ‘Desher Dak’, a local Bengali newspaper.
He was introduced to politics in 1969 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who guided him to become a member at the Rajya Sabha.
Mukherjee is said to be the only minister to have handled four major ministries, defence, commerce, foreign and finance.
He was voted the Best Finance Minister in the World by Euromoney magazine in 1984. He is the only Finance Minister to have presented seven budgets.
After the demise of Indira Gandhi, Mukherjee quit the Congress and formed his own political party, the Rashtriya Samajwadi Party.
He is the only Finance Minister to serve the post both, in the Pre-Liberisation and Post-Liberisation eras.
