Former Indian President Pranab Mukherjee passed away at the age of 84, his family said.
Mukherjee He died of multiple organ failure on Monday after being admitted to the hospital weeks ago, having also contracted coronavirus.
A senior leader of the Indian Congress party who served in various cabinets for five decades.Mukherjee underwent emergency surgery for a blood clot in his brain on August 10 at the New Delhi Army Research and Referral Hospital after suffering a fall.
The hospital said he tested positive for COVID-19 after surgery and that his condition was critical. He remained in a coma after surgery.
The hospital said his health began to decline Monday after a lung infection triggered septic shock.
His son, former lawmaker Abhijeet Mukherjee, tweeted Monday night that he had died.
“His disappearance is going through an era,” the office of Indian President Ram Nath Kovind said in a Twitter post.
It is sad to hear that former President Shri Pranab Mukherjee is no more. His disappearance is the passage of an era. A colossus in public life, he served Mother India with the spirit of a sage. The nation is in mourning for the loss of one of its most worthy children. Condolences to his family, friends and all citizens.
– President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) August 31, 2020
‘A colossus in public life’
Mukherjee served as president from 2012 to 2017, at the end of a long period in which the Congress party was in power.
The office is primarily ceremonial in India, with executive powers vested in the prime minister.
Before that, he had served as finance, defense and foreign affairs minister to three different prime ministers and helped manage their conflicting governing coalitions.
Mukherjee was a university professor in the state of West Bengal before running for public office in 1969.
He became a protégé of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and was loyal to her during the Internal Emergency that she had proclaimed from 1975 to 1977, when elections were suspended and civil liberties restricted. Many of his opponents were jailed.
He lost his post as finance minister after Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 and her son Rajiv Gandhi became prime minister.
Mukherjee formed his own party, but later reconciled with Rajiv Gandhi and returned to the Congress Party in 1989.
After the murder of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, Mukherjee joined the cabinets of his successors, PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh.
Mukherjee received India’s highest civil honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 2019.
India mourns the passing of Bharat Ratna Shri Pranab Mukherjee. It has left an indelible mark on our nation’s development trajectory. A scholar par excellence, an imposing statesman, he was admired across the political spectrum and by all sectors of society. pic.twitter.com/gz6rwQbxi6
– Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 31, 2020
Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the rival nationalist Bharatiya Janata party said Mukherjee “left an indelible mark on our nation’s development trajectory.
“A quintessential academic, a towering statesman, he was admired across the political spectrum,” Modi said on Twitter.
Current President Ram Nath Kovind called Mukherjee “a colossus in public life” who served India “with the spirit of a sage.”
Mukherjee is survived by two sons and a daughter. His wife died in 2015.
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