The troubleshooter

Pranab Mukherjee's career spanned three phases of Indian politics

Former president Pranab Mukherjee, who died on Monday aged 84, was a giant of India’s political economy. His tenure as first citizen of India between 2012 and 2017 was a fitting culmination of a career in which he occupied multiple major positions in the constellation of Indian power. Over the course of a long career, Mukherjee developed deep personal connections across political and ideological divides; he was almost universally respected not just for his abilities but for his encyclopaedic memory.

Mukherjee’s career spanned the three phases of Indian politics: The era when the Congress was dominant; the decades of coalition government