From the archive record
Mr. Pranab Mukherjee was the Minister of State for External Affairs in this rare video! Pranab Mukherjee, in full Shri Pranab Kumar Mukherjee, (born December 11, 1935, Mirati, Bengal [now in West Bengal], India), Indian politician and government official who served as president of India (2012–17). He succeeded Pratibha Patil (served 2007–12), India’s first woman president. Mukherjee first ran for public office in 1969, when he won a seat in the Rajya Sabha (upper house) of the Indian parliament as a member of the Bangla Congress, which soon merged with the Congress Party. He served an additional four terms, although he left that chamber in 2004 and contested and won a seat in the Lok Sabha (lower house). He served there until mid-2012, when he ran for president of India. Early on in his ca