Pranab Mukherjee, India’s former president who never became PM
NEW DELHI, (Reuters) - During five decades in Indian politics, Pranab Mukherjee, who died yesterday after a lung infection, led some of the nation’s most powerful ministries and eventually became its president, but the ultimate prize still eluded him: the prime ministership.
Mukherjee tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 10 and had been in hospital since. He was 84.
Valued for his ability to build consensus by exerting his charm to bring together disparate groups, Mukherjee never won the top job, despite decades of loyalty to the Congress party.
The former college teacher and journalist lacked a grassroots political base, but held more than a dozen federal portfolios between 1973 and 2012, ranging from commerce and finance to defence and foreign affairs.
But he could also raise hackles, as when finance minister in 2012, he demanded a $2-billion payment from Vodafone, then India’s largest overseas corporate investor, as part of a retrospective tax on long-concluded corporate deals.
Mukherjee entered parliament in 1969, following his father into the Congress party led by Indira Gandhi, just as she steered the country on a sharp turn towards socialism.
He rose under Gandhi’s mentorship, only to be sidelined by her son, Rajiv, after elections in 1984.
But Mukherjee managed to regain his proximity to the Congress leadership and the Gandhi family, becoming one of India’s most influential politicians during the 1990s and
A Chief Prison Officer is now dead while three others, including two of his colleagues were injured after a motorcar and another vehicle collided along Homestretch Avenue yesterday morning.
Dead is Prince Cox, 38, of Nabaclis, East Coast Demerara.
The two injured prison officers have been identified as Leslie Thornhill, 22, of Nabaclis, ECD and Javon Hector, 27, of Canal No. 1 Polder, West Bank Demerara.
Police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Royston Andries- Junor yesterday confirmed the accident which occurred around 8am in the vicinity of the Customs AntiNarcotic Unit ( CANU) Headquarters.
At the time, Cox and Thornhill were passengers in PYY 7942, which was being driven by Hector.
The driver of the other vehicle, a Toyota X-Trail PWW 4425 was also injured. He has been identified as a 22-year-old resident of Eccles, East Bank Demerara (EBD).
The police in a statement yesterday said that enquiries revealed that at the time of the accident, motorcar, PYY 7942 was proceeding west along the southern side of the road while the X-Trail, PWW 4425 was proceeding east along the northern side of the said road.
“As both vehicles were approaching CANU Headquarters, motorcar PYY 7942, while overtaking a line of vehicle ended up in the path of the XTrail,” the police added.
Despite efforts to avoid an impact, the police said the X-Trail collided with the motorcar.
As a result, both drivers and occupants of the vehicles sustained injuries about their bodies. They were picked up and rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) where Cox was pronounced dead.
Hector, Thornhill and the driver of the X-Trail were admitted at the said hospital. Their conditions are said to be serious.
Cox’s wife, Olivia Cox told Stabroek News that she received a call yesterday morning from a colleague who informed her that her husband had been in an accident and that he had died.
She said she immediately rushed to the GPH. “I went to the hospital and found him lying there dead,” Olivia said.
According to Olivia, Prince was heading home from work when he met his demise. She said he worked the night shift on Sunday night which ended early yesterday morning.
Olivia is also an employee of the Guyana Prison Service. She was stationed in Georgetown while Cox was at the Lusignan prison.
Cox had been a prison officer for about 16 years. The couple have three children.