Pranab active as ever in 1st year
A seasoned politician, a pro-active President and commanding respect cutting across the partyline, Mr Pranab Mukherjee rising above his predecessor Pratibha Patil will complete a year in office on July 25.
In a year’s time, he has changed the concept of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Its not an inaccessible, an intimidating structure, housing the First Citizen of the country. He has thrown open the doors of his house to the aam aadmi (common man). And while other Presidents are often found hopping from one country to another, Mr Mukherjee has mainly been touring Indian states.
The President has remained actively involved and addressed issues like December 16, 2012 gangrape and quick disposal of mercy petitions of terrorists. He disposed of the mercy petitions of 26/11 attack convict Ajmal Kasab and Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. While Pratibha Patil had left 19 mercy pleas undecided for the incumbent.
If his predecessor Pratibha Patil logged over 22 countries on four continents, Mr Mukherjee has visited only Bangladesh and Mauritius. While he is scheduled to travel to Turkey, Belgium and Bhutan soon. The incumbent President has preferred to make visits to different parts of the country, visiting 23 states so far. However, he has so far not visited Gujarat.
Over this period, the imposing 340-room Rashtrapati Bhavan has been thrown open to the public. Social networking sites like Facebook are also being used by Rashtrapati Bhavan to reach out to the common man.
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