Pranab bids adieu: ‘Tried to preserve Constitution’
Outgoing President underlines value of debate in democracy
NEWDELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee hailed on Sunday India’s democracy and Parliament in particular, delivering an emotional farewell speech at the Central Hall where he urged lawmakers to “debate, discuss and dissent” but not disrupt.
Mukherjee, the 13th President of India, will leave the Rashtrapati Bhawan on Tuesday when his successor Ram Nath Kovind is sworn in. “I strived to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, not just in word but also in spirit,” Mukherjee said, reflecting upon his time as India’s titular head of state that began in 2012.
The President has raised eyebrows last year when he ordered the dismissal of the Uttarakhand government.
Mukherjee spent 37 years as a Congress member in Parliament, where, he said on Sunday, “realised how disruption hurts the opposition more than the government as it denies them the opportunity to raise the concerns of the people,” the President said. The monsoon session of Parliament currently underway has seen repeated adjournments, costing of time and money for the House. Both Houses of Parliament have often been marred by protests that have delayed the rollout of key legislation.
“When Parliament fails to discharge its lawmaking role or enacts laws without discussion, I feel it breaches the trust reposed in it by the people of this great country,” he said.
The President spoke out about Ordinances in particular, calling it a tool that “should be used only in compelling circumstances”.
Mukherjee shared a story about his mentor, late PM Indira Gandhi, on the importance of “self-correction”. After the Congress’s poll defeat following the Emergency, Gandhi and Mukherjee were in London in 1978 and faced journalists, he said. “The first question that was flung at her was, ‘What have been your gains from the Emergency?’ Looking at the journalist squarely in the eye, Indira Gandhi replied, ‘In those 21 months, we comprehensively managed to alienate all sections of Indian people.’ I learnt an early lesson of acknowledging my mistakes and rectifying them. Self-correction in such situations is always a better option than self-justification,” Mukherjee said.
He said: “I’ll carry with me fond memories of association with PM Narendra Modi and remember his warm behaviour towards me”.
When Parliament fails to discharge its lawmaking role or enacts laws without discussion, it breaches the trust reposed in it by the people of this great country PRANAB MUKHERJEE, President, at his farewell