PATNA: Nitish Kumar quit as Bihar Chief Minister on Wednesday, saying it was becoming difficult for him to work under the present circumstances amid allegations of scam being levelled against Tejashwi Yadav, son of Lalu Prasad Yadav and also Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. 
 He was leading Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) coalition government in Bihar since November 2015. The coalition government had been rocked by allegations of corruption against Tejashwi and other members of Lalu Prasad’s family. 
Mr. Kumar met Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi at Raj Bhavan in the evening and submitted his resignation. The Governor accepted his resignation and requested him to continue till alternative arrangements were made. 
Addressing mediapersons, Mr. Kumar said that his commitment was towards the people of Bihar and for securing justice and development for them. The JD(U)-RJD coalition ran into rough weather as allegations of corruption, scam and amassing of property surfaced against RJD supremo and former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s family, including Tejashwi Yadav who was Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. 
Nitish Kumar said that he had met the Lalu-Rabri duo as well as Tejashwi. He said that he had asked Tejashwi to explain and come out clean. He said that it was becoming difficult to work under such circumstances and there was nothing much he could do. 
He said that he had been criticised for supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation decision last year. He said that he had taken Bihar on the road of social transformation by enforcing liquor ban and had been a crusader against corruption. 
Prime Minister Modi was quick to tweet his reaction to Mr. Kumar’s resignation. In a tweet, the PM congratulated Nitish Kumar for joining hands in the fight against corruption. He said that 125 crore citizens of India have welcomed the honest step taken by Mr. Kumar. Mr. Modi said that for the country’s and Bihar’s bright future, it was necessary to rise above party affiliations in the fight against corruption. 
Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who also hails from Bihar welcomed the principled stand taken by Mr. Kumar. He said that Nitish Kumar was very conscious of his clean image and termed the JD(U)-RJD coalition as one based on fear and inequality. 
JD(U) leader K. C. Tyagi hailed the decision of Mr. Kumar, saying the party wholeheartedly supported it and would fully back him. 

NEW DELHI:  Justice Dipak Misra, the second senior most judge of the Supreme Court, will be the next Chief Justice of India, succeeding Justice J S Khehar.   
The process of appointment of the next CJI has been set in motion with Justice J S Khehar sending his recommendation of Justice Misra’s name for the top judicial post of the country to the Union Law Ministry, sources in the Law Ministry said. 
Justice Khehar will retire on August 27. Justice Dipak Misra will take over from him, becoming the 45th Chief Justice of India.
Beginning his career as an advocate in 1977, he was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Orissa High Court in 1996 and was transferred to the Madhya Pradesh High Court next year.  He became permanent Judge of the High Court in December, 1997. Justice Misra was elevated as Chief Justice of the Patna High Court in 2009 and later became the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court in 2010. He was appointed Supreme Court judge on October 10, 2011.
Justice Misra will, under normal circumstances, retire as CJI on October 2, 2018. 

NEW DELHI : A great scientist, an institution builder, an able science administrator, an educationist and a science communicator par excellence. Prof Yashpal, who passed away on Tuesday, was all this combined and much more.  

Whichever role Yashpal donned, he brought an air of freshness, innovation and radical ideas. He took every job entrusted to him by his mentors like Vikram Sarabhai and Satish Dhawan – as well as Prime Ministers – Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi – seriously and executed with dedication. In every position he held during a career spanning half a century, Yashpal left his indelible mark.

Like several of contemporary scientists in independent India, Yashpal began his scientific career at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) which was the fountainhead of space, atomic energy and electronics development. As space technology began to grow in the 1970s, he was asked to head a special project SITE – Satellite Instructional Television Experiment – which was originally conceived by Sarabhai but executed much after his death. 

Instead for going in for easy option like sending scientists to NASA or importing equipment, Yashpal pushed the envelope and developed indigenously the technology for satellite earth station and communications. This not only made SITE hugely successful but also, in some ways, laid the foundation for satellite television and communication revolution in the decades to come. As advisor to the Planning Commission, he catalyzed major changes in the communication sector.

Given his deep interest in making science education meaningful, the government made him the Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC). His work at UGC and in the education sector was legendary. He wanted to reform the higher education sector, and at one point, even suggested that all colleges and universities be closed down for one year so that they can re-invent themselves.  He saw the university as a place with “universal approach to knowledge” where “boundaries of disciplines be porous and scholars be constantly on guard against the tendency towards ‘cubicalization’ of knowledge.”  He wanted universities where humanities and sciences meet and co-exist, and not live in isolation. Yashpal had also emphasized on the role of higher education in creating an institutional space for dialogue and liberal inquiry.

He was equally concerned with school education. Referring to the load of books carried by children to schools, he had observed in a report to the government: “So far as physical load of the school bag is concerned, the situation has become worse over the past few years. However, the weight of the school bag represents only one dimension of the problem; the more pernicious burden is that of non-comprehension.”

Yashpal was a great communicator of science. He became popular as one who could explain science in to people with no background in science. He had begun experimenting with science communication through television during SITE. In the 1990s, he anchored science programme on Doordarshan – ‘Turning Point’ – and used to answer questions sent by viewers. He used to answer questions in manner that would make viewers think and seek more knowledge instead of giving direct answers. The programme ran for 150 episodes and had film actors like Nasiruddin Shah as hosts. He was also Chief Advisor for television serials – Bharat Ki Chaap, Tur-rum-tu, and Race to Save the Planet. He was the face of live telecasts of total solar eclipse programmes in 1995 and 1999, and the transit of Venus in 2004. 

Many people are intrigued about his name. Yashpal had no surname, rather he had dropped his surname.  He had revealed the full story to his biographer, Biman Basu, a few years ago. As non-believers in the caste system Yash Pal’s family had already given up using their surname (Bhutani). But when he was 13 and had to change his school, he took on the surname of Arya and he passed his matriculation examination under this name. In 1942, at the age of 15, when he joined college, he took on the surname of Bharati – influenced by the students movement and the freedom struggle. A couple of years later, he dropped Bharati too. “But interestingly, he could not escape having a surname. He acquired one after he started publishing scientific papers because people started calling him ‘Pal’”, says Basu.

Yashpal was born at Jhang (now in Pakistan) on 26 November 1926. He spent his early childhood in Quetta (Balochistan). He went to school in Quetta, Jabalpur, Lyllapur and studied BSc in Punjab University, Lahore. After post-graduation from Delhi University, he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for doctorate. (India Science Wire)

The Government has appealed to the consumers to switch to LED bulbs and support its efforts to save energy.  The Ministry of Power said  that the Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for all (UJALA), government’s  energy saving initiative has already resulted in 5,57,00,270 KWh worth of energy savings and reduced over 45,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. Consumers should not get influenced by surveys presenting incorrect information about the distribution process of the UJALA scheme.

Recently, there was a survey conducted by an independent research organization Localcircles.com stating that a significant number of citizens in the country are not aware of the process of obtaining a LED bulb under the scheme. The Power Ministry has clarified that UJALA has benefitted more than 5 crore citizens across 18 states and 4 UTs in India, which has been possible only through robust distribution and awareness mechanisms. The Ministry has also ensured that awareness of its UJALA programme reaches every beneficiary, irrespective of their social and economic background.

The online survey by Localcircles.com presents an incomplete picture of the UJALA scheme. The online survey claims to be conducted across 20 plus states and 56 cities. However, there are four states where the scheme has not taken off owing to necessary state government approvals. The Ministry of Power is engaging with the respective state governments and ensuring that the scheme is rolled out soon. The survey also ignores states like Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, where the scheme has been successful. The survey has also been conducted in cities like Noida and Ghaziabad, where the scheme is yet to take off.

A lawyer, veteran political representative and long-time advocate of egalitarianism and integrity in Indian public life and society, Ram Nath Kovind was born on October 1, 1945, in Paraunkh, near Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. His parents were Shri Maiku Lal and Smt Kalawati. 

Before assuming charge of the office of the 14th President of India on July 25, 2017, Ramnath Kovind served as the 36th Governor of the state of Bihar from August 16, 2015, to June 20, 2017. 

Educational and Professional Background 

Kovind completed his school education in Kanpur and obtained the degrees of B.Com and L.L.B. from Kanpur University. In 1971, he enrolled as an Advocate with the Bar Council of Delhi. 

Kovind was Union Government Advocate in the Delhi High Court from 1977 to 1979 and Union Government Standing Counsel in the Supreme Court from 1980 to 1993. He became Advocate-on-Record of the Supreme Court of India in 1978. He practised at the Delhi High Court and Supreme Court for 16 years till 1993. 

Parliamentary and Public Life 

Ramnath Kovind was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh in April 1994. He served for two consecutive terms of six years each till March 2006. Shri Kovind served on various Parliamentary Committees like Parliamentary Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes/Tribes; Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs; Parliamentary Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas; Parliamentary Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment; and Parliamentary Committee on Law and Justice. He was Chairman of the Rajya Sabha House Committee. 

Kovind also served as Member of the Board of Management of the Dr B.R Ambedkar University, Lucknow, and Member of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata. He was part of the Indian delegation at the United Nations and addressed the United Nations General Assembly in October 2002. 

Positions Held 

2015-17: Governor of Bihar

1994-2006: Member of the Rajya Sabha, representing the state of Uttar Pradesh

1971-75 and 1981: General Secretary, Akhil Bharatiya Koli Samaj 

1977-79: Union Government Advocate at the Delhi High Court

1982-84: Union Government Junior Counsel in the Supreme Court 

Personal Details 

Ramnath Kovind married Smt Savita Kovind on May 30, 1974. They have a son, Shri Prashant Kumar, and a daughter, Miss Swati. An avid reader, the President has keen interest in reading books on politics and social change, law and history, and religion. 

During his long public career, Kovind has travelled widely across the country. He has also visited Thailand, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Germany, Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom and the United States in his capacity as a Member of Parliament. 

Melbourne/New Delhi : Over 1.4 million lives are lost in road accidents in India every year, and for every death, many more are severely injured or permanently disabled. Trauma care scientists in India and Australia, working jointly for the past four years, are confident these numbers can be reduced substantially through simple steps like better data collection and notifying hospitals before patients arrive.

While it is critical to enforce road safety norms, improve road engineering design and implement ban on alcohol sale on highways, improving quality of trauma care can go a long way in saving lives not just due to road accidents but also other types of traumatic events. 

Significant steps towards this have already been taken and are promising good results. India’s first multi-centre trauma registry has gone live a few weeks back and this experience would pave the way for developing a national trauma registry. 

A registry is not just registration of injured coming to trauma centres or ‘injury surveillance’, but a database containing full spectrum of care for every patient. Over a period of time, such data can reveal how trauma centres are responding to the injured and how they can improve quality of care to save lives. 

“If we know that we do to with patients when they arrive, it will help us improve patient care,” explained Dr Joseph Mathew, a trauma care consultant at the Alfred Trauma Service and National Trauma Research Institute (NTRI) in Melbourne. Trauma care is complex, often involving multiple disciplines within a hospital and external players in public and private sectors. Registries can help improve coordination and delivery of care to patients. 

The unified registry which has been established at the Jai Prakash Narain Apex Trauma Centre at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, connects trauma centres at three other hospitals – Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital (New Delhi), Seth V S General Hospital (Ahmedabad) and Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital (Sion, Mumbai). The registry has already captured data about 4500 trauma patients from four centres. 

“We have demonstrated feasibility of setting such a unified registry and this can serve as a template for developing a national trauma registry,” said Dr Mathew. The registry is one of the main projects of the Australia India Trauma System Collaboration (AITSC) initiated in 2013. It is jointly funded by India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Australia’s Department of Industry, Innovation and Science.

“The trauma registry at JPN Apex Trauma Centre helped us realise the importance of ‘golden hour’ concept. We were taking almost three hours in emergency department for resuscitation and stabilisation of trauma patients. By performing ‘trauma audit’ using data from the registry, we identified the gaps and once we bridged those gaps, we could reduce the emergency department (ED) time from 3 hours to 30 minutes,” explained Dr Mahesh Chandra Misra, former head of J P N Apex Trauma Centre, and co-team leader of AITSC.

Dr Misra said a national registry should be established in India soon. “We need to establish hospital-based trauma registries as soon as possible and network all trauma care facilities to generate good data. It is already late.”

Scientists have also developed a system for pre-hospital notification so that a trauma centre is ready before a seriously injured patient arrives at the centre. Pre-hospital notification is communication sent by emergency staff from ambulance to a receiving hospital while the injured person is on the way. For this a mobile app – named Soochana Â– has been developed. “No such system of pre-hospital notification existed in India till this app,” said Dr Misra.

The app is used by a designated person in trauma centre to receive the notification and relay the same information to selected doctors and departments within the centre so that they are ready when the injured arrives. This is called ‘trauma team activation’. “It is a like pitstop in car racing. Everyone is ready when a trauma patient arrives,” notes Dr Mathew. Pre-notification alone can save number of lives. 

Another mobile app has been developed to help in rehabilitation of patients after they are discharged. Trauma patients need post-hospital treatment, care and support for a long time. In many places rehabilitation facilities are not available. In such cases, people could be helped via the mobile app. A clinical trial is underway to evaluate effectiveness of the intervention. 

The Australian model of trauma care is much sought after globally. Australian trauma experts have also been approached by some state government in India to develop trauma plans for their respective states, but progress is very slow. “A state like Uttar Pradesh with population of over 200 million has just one ‘level 1’ trauma centre. It needs at least 8 such centres,” pointed out Dr Mathew. 

“We were, 20-30 years ago, in the same situation as India is today. Four of my cousins died in car accidents. Now we have demonstrated how simple steps can save lives. Integrated trauma systems ensure that right person goes to right centre at right time,” said Dr Mark Fitzgerald, Director of NTRI and team leader of the joint programme. 

“We have been able to bring down mortality due to traffic accidents by 62 percent. About 450 to 500 people die in India every day in road accidents. At least 75 percent of them can be saved by improving quality of trauma care and response,” summed up Dr Mathew. (India Science Wire)

New Delhi : The Indian Space Research Organistaion (ISRO) is today counted among the best space agencies globally. Much of the credit for this goes to UR Rao who helped the agency master technology for making complex communication, weather and remote sensing satellites with limited resources and difficult circumstances such as technology denial.

Having started his career as a doctoral student of Vikram Sarabhai in 1954 at Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad, Udupi Ramachandra Rao spent his scientific career spanning almost half a century for developing and nurturing the Indian space programme. After a brief stint in America as a postdoc at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Rao returned to India at the behest of Sarabhai.

Throughout the 1960s, Sarabhai was feverishly trying to put together a plan for developing space technology applications in India after having successfully set up the sounding rocket facility at Thumba in Kerala. He asked Rao, who had worked on spacecraft systems while being at NASA, to prepare a blueprint for development of space technology in India. Then he asked Rao to implement the plan. The rest of Rao’s life was spent in doing so, beginning with the fabrication of India’s first satellite – Aryabhata – launched in April 1975.

Aryabhata, weighing 358 kg, was built from scratch by a young team of engineers and scientists put together by Rao at a newly created facility in the Peenya industrial estate in Bangalore. The facility later became the ISRO Satellite Centre with Rao as its founding director. The Soviets launched Aryabhata from the Kapustin Yar Cosmodrome, without charging any fee, purely as a friendly gesture. This was followed by launch of Bhaskara 1 and 2, and Rohini series of satellites.

If Aryabhata got a free launch from the Soviet Union, the first experimental communication satellite – Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment (APPLE) – was launched for free on a development flight of Ariane vehicle of European Space Agency (ESA) from Kourou in 1981. 

The American media ridiculed India’s foray into space when it was ridden with other problems as poverty. News weekly, Newsweek, carried a picture of APPLE being transported from the hanger to test center in a bullock cart with a caption ‘Collision of Centuries’. Many years later, Rao explained in an interview why the satellite was carried on a bullock cart: “We had to ship the satellite for EMC (Electromagnetic Interference/Capability) testing, and trucks made of metals were throwing off reflections that were affecting the satellite’s antenna. Then somebody hit on the idea of a bullock cart, which is made of wood. It worked perfectly.” 

With the experience gained from building experimental satellites in the 1970s, Rao came up with an ambitious idea of building larger communication, remote sensing and multi-purpose satellites with practical applications. Thus were born the legendary series of Indian satellites in the 1980s – the INSAT (Indian National Satellite) and IRS (India Remote Sensing Satellite) – which provided communication, broadcasting, weather and earth observation services to a variety of Indian users. Thus within two decades, Rao could demonstrate the applicability of space technology for national development, as envisioned by his mentor Sarabhai. This is despite the problems Rao was facing in the 1980s with successive failures of Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV).

In all, over 20 satellites were designed and launched under his guidance. Besides laying foundation for self-reliance in satellite building, Rao is credited with building a new way of executing complex technology project – which many call the ‘ISRO Culture’. All space projects are complex, challenging, multi-disciplinary, time-critical, and – in the case of India – have to be executed with limited budget. Rao mastered this art. Leveraging his experience of working with NASA, Rao introduced a matrix management structure for managing projects by ensuring optimal use of available resources. The ISRO culture encompasses decentralized decision making for technology development, systems engineering, quality assurance, peer review and thorough failure assessment. Actually this is what differentiates ISRO from other scientific agencies in India.   

Rao came from a humble background. He was born in Udupi in Karnataka. “I saw a train for the first time when I had to go to Bellary for Intermediate. I had never seen a train because no trains used to come to Udupi. They used to come to Mangalore, which is about 58 km from Udupi. Udupi was a taluka at that time, but there were four rivers, at each river you had to take a boat to cross and then take another one. It was a big effort going to Bangalore from Udupi,” Rao had recalled in an interview a few years ago.

He first thought of space technology while doing M. Sc. at Banaras Hindu University. “I said I wanted to be a space scientist. I was not sure my own professor would have welcomed it because at that time space was not a hot subject, but I had a dream. The main thing is we must dream and then you have to just dedicate yourself for that.” (India Science Wire)

NEW DELHI: China on Monday urged India to immediately withdraw all troops that have illegally entered China, stating that the nation would defend its territorial sovereignty “at all costs.”

“The Chinese border troops have taken initial counter measures at the site and will step up targeted deployment and training,” Xinhua news agency quoted Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defence, as having said at a press conference.

Xinhua report said that Wu urged India to immediately withdraw it troops, describing the request as a prerequisite to resolving the situation.

“We strongly urge India to take solid measures to correct its mistakes and desist from provocation,” Wu said, calling for a joint effort to maintain peace in the border areas.

The spokesperson warned India to abandon any impractical illusions.

The history of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the past 90 years has demonstrated its increasing capacities and unshakable determination to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, he said.

“It’s easier to shake a mountain than the PLA,” Wu was quoted as having said.

Last week External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had said in Parliament that troops from both the sides should withdraw to facilitate a solution to the ongoing border standoff with China. She had told Rajya Sabhaon Thursday that both Indian and Chinese soldiers should withdraw from the Doklam region in the tri-junction with Bhutan. The stand-off has continued for more than a month now.

She said that any unilateral altering of the border by China will amount to a “direct threat’’ to India’s security concerns.

On the eve of stepping down from office, I am overwhelmed by a deep sense of gratitude for the people of India, their elected representatives and the political parties for the trust and confidence they reposed in me. I am humbled by their kindness and affection. I have received much more from the country than I have given. For that, I will remain ever indebted to the people of India.

I congratulate and extend a warm welcome to Shri Ram Nath Kovind, the President-to-be and wish him success and happiness in the years to come.

Our founding fathers, with the adoption of Constitution, set in motion powerful forces that liberated us from the stranglehold of inequity in gender, caste and community along with other fetters that had tied us for too long. It inspired a social and cultural evolution which put Indian society on the track to modernity. 

A modern nation is built on some essential fundamentals – democracy or equal rights for every citizen, secularism or equal freedom to every faith, equality of every region, and economic equity. For development to be real, the poorest of the land must feel that they are a part of the nation’s narrative.

Five years ago, when I took the oath of office of the President of the Republic, I promised to preserve, protect and defend our Constitution, not just in word but also in spirit. Each day of these five years, I was conscious of my responsibility. I learnt from my travels across the length and breadth of the country. I learnt from my conversations with young and bright minds in colleges and universities, scientists, innovators, scholars, jurists, authors, artists and leaders from across the spectrum. These interactions kept me focused and inspired. I strove hard. How successful I was in discharging my responsibilities will be judged, over the time, by the critical lens of history.

As one advances in years, so does one’s propensity to sermonize. But I have no sermon to make. For the past fifty years of my public life, – 

My sacred text has been the Constitution of India;

My temple has been the Parliament of India; and 

My passion has been the service of the people of India. 

I want to share with you some truths that I have internalized in this period:

The soul of India resides in pluralism and tolerance. India is not just a geographical entity. It carries a history of ideas, philosophy, intellect, industrial genius, craft, innovation and experience. Plurality of our society has come about through assimilation of ideas over centuries. The multiplicity in culture, faith and language is what makes India special. We derive our strength from tolerance. It has been part of our collective consciousness for centuries. There are divergent strands in public discourse. We may argue, we may agree or we may not agree.But we cannot deny the essential prevalence of multiplicity of opinion. Otherwise, a fundamental character of our thought process will wither away.

The capacity for compassion and empathy is the true foundation of our civilization. But every day, we see increased violence around us. At the heart of this violence is darkness, fear and mistrust. We must free our public discourse from all forms of violence, physical as well as verbal. Only a non-violent society can ensure the participation of all sections of the people, especially the marginalized and the dispossessed in the democratic process. Power of non-violence has to be resurrected to build a compassionate and caring society.

Protection of the environment is essential for our survival. Nature has been kind to us in its bounty. But when greed exceeds need, nature lets loose its fury. We often see some parts of India affected by devastating floods while others reel under severe drought. Climate change has put farming sector under tremendous stress. Scientists and technologists have to work with millions of farmers and workers to revive the health of our soil, arrest the decline in water table and restore the ecological balance. We all have to act together now for the future may not give us another chance.

As I had said on assuming the Office of the President, education is the alchemy that can take India to its next golden age. A reordering of society is possible through the transformative power of education. For that, we have to upgrade our higher institutions of learning to world-class levels. Our education system must accept disruption as a norm and prepare our students to manage and build upon the disruptions. Our universities should not be a place for rote-memorizing but an assembly of inquisitive minds. Creative thinking, innovation and scientific temper have to be promoted in our institutions of higher learning. It calls for application of logic through discussion, argument and analysis. These qualities have to be cultivated and autonomy of mind has to be encouraged.

For us, creation of an inclusive society has to be an article of faith. Gandhiji saw India as an inclusive nation where every section of our population lived in equality and enjoyed equal opportunity. He wanted our people to move forward unitedly in ever-widening thought and action. Financial inclusion is at the core of an equitable society. We must empower the poorest of the poor and ensure that the fruits of our policies reach the last person in the line.

To lead healthy, happy and productive lives is the basic right of our citizens. Happiness is fundamental to the human experience of life. Happiness is equally the outcome of economic and non-economic parameters. The quest for happiness is closely tied to the quest for sustainable development, which is the combination of human well-being, social inclusion and environmental stability. Eradication of poverty would provide a strong boost to happiness. A sustainable environment would prevent damage to the planetary resources. Social inclusion would ensure access to the fruits of progress to all. Good governance would provide the ability to people to shape their own lives through transparent, accountable and participatory political institutions.

During my five years in Rashtrapati Bhavan, we tried to build a humane and happy township. We found happiness that is associated with joy and pride, smiling and laughter, good health, feeling of safety and positive actions. We learnt to wear a smile always; to laugh at life; to connect with nature and get involved with the community. And then, we extended our experience to a few villages in the neighbourhood. The journey continues.

As I get ready to leave, let me repeat what I said in my first Address to the Nation on the eve of Independence Day 2012: “Words cannot adequately express my gratitude to the people and their representatives for the honour of this high office even as I am deeply conscious of the fact that the highest honour in our democracy does not lie in any office but in being a citizen of India, our motherland. We are all equal children before our mother and India asks each one of us in whatever role we play in the complex drama of nation building to do our duty with integrity, commitment and unflinching loyalty to the values enshrined in our Constitution”.

When I speak to you tomorrow, it will not be as the President but as a citizen– a pilgrim like all of you in India’s onward march towards glory.

The President Shri Pranab Mukherjee demits office in a few hours.  His presidency was the culmination of extraordinary career of a political leader.  India has seen a few politicians like him who had the capacity to evolve into a statesman irrespective of their political affiliation and the office that they held.  Pranabda is one such leader who brought dignity to every office that he held.  

My first contact with him started when he, along with Dr. Manmohan Singh, was occupying the opposition benches during the Vajpayee Government.  He chaired important Standing Committees which had the responsibility of clearing several legislations.  Three of them were important constitution amendments.  One related to the freezing of seats in the Lok Sabha and the State Legislatures despite demographic changes in several States.  The second involved review of the Anti-Defection Law.  The third one dealt with limiting the size of the Council of Ministers both in the centre and the States.  His Committee expeditiously considered these amendments and improved upon the drafts that the Government had prepared and produced a much better document.  He evolved a consensus on all these issues.  Even in opposition he was never an obstructionist.  He was a product of the parliamentary system and favoured using Parliament for larger National interest.   

In his later years, I closely observed him both as a Member and subsequently as a Leader of the Opposition.  His natural ability was to rise above partisan arguments.  In Parliament, he almost spoke like an amicus curiae – a friend of the House, rather than a party leader.  This quality enabled him to evolve a consensus in favour of the argument that he advanced.  Very rarely did he lose his cool, but if he did, he was smiling a minute later and making up with his target through some complimentary references.

He had a great sense of history which blended with his vision of constitutional propriety.  The democrat in him insisted that the Government and the opposition had to work in tandem on major issues.  He could recollect parliamentary and judicial precedents to decide which was the right course that had to be pursued.  

As President, he was unquestionably the guardian of the Constitution.  He realised that in a democracy there could only be one power centre i.e. elected Government and the Prime Minister.  He, therefore, actively associated with two different Governments during his presidency with equal ease.  He ensured that all decisions of the Council of Ministers had to conform to constitutional propriety.  On some occasions, he wanted to be satisfied before he accorded his approval to those decisions.  I was usually sent to interact with him.  He was always well prepared on facts, on Constitutional requirements and the need for fairness.  These essentials had to be balanced with the requirement of the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers being forwarded to him.  This delicate balance he maintained throughout his tenure. He always accepted the advise of the Council of Ministers.   

Pranabda exhibited a unique charm which won him many admirers’.  He made dealing with him a matter of delight.  He put all his interlocutors at ease.  He grew in stature with each day.  His transformation from a senior Minister to a President was exemplary.  As president he was completely non-partisan and conducted himself as an advisor and a guide to his Governments.  He owned up the programmes of the Government and became their advocate.  He once told me that he had the unique privilege of moving before Parliament the Constitution amendment of Good and Services Tax.  He wanted to approve the Constitution amendment during his tenure as the President.  It gave him great satisfaction when he did so.  

He exits from the Rashtrapati Bhawan with a great stature.  He will now assume a greater role of advising and guiding the nation as an amicus curiae which he always was.

( Arun Jaitley is Minister of Finance, Defence and Corporate Affairs )