A copybook President completes one year in office

An active politician for over four decades, Pranab Mukherjee today completed one year in office as a copybook President, a period that was marked by proactive steps within and outside Rashtrapati Bhavan.

77-year-old Mukherjee, a stickler for rules and conventions in his heydays as parliamentarian or minister, used occasions, whenever he got in the last one year, to impress upon the lawmakers to shed disruptions in the House while asking the judiciary to avoid overreach.

He shed the "honorific" of "His Excellency" in people addressing him and sought to reach out to them taking Rashtrapati Bhavan closer to the common man. He was seen as proactive when he disposed of the mercy petitions of 26/11 attack convict Ajmal Kasab and Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru that had triggered a controversy but his aides explain that as President he had no choice but to go by the Cabinet advice.

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"A President has to function by the book," Mukherjee told a journalist at an informal tea with the media in Rashtrapati Bhavan yesterday when he was asked about people calling him an active President.

To mark the day, the President has a busy schedule today with back-to-back functions opening a public library for residents of Rashtrapati Bhavan, dedication of a cricket ground in the school within the President's estate, unveiling of a bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi and launch of digital initiatives linked to the President's website.