Quotes from Pranab Mukherjee

Propelled by freedom of faith, gender equality and economic justice for all, India will become a modern nation. Minor blemishes cannot cloak the fact that India is becoming such a modern nation: no faith is in danger in our country, and the continuing commitment to gender equality is one of the great narratives of our times.

P. Chidambaram, the then Home Minister, had strong reservations about this project. He was opposed to the idea of the UIDAI

In the first ever free general elections in Pakistan, the Awami League of East Pakistan, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won a clear majority in the Pakistan National Assembly (PNA). With this, the history of the subcontinent reached a turning point in 1971.

In the long history of the Congress, a really serious contest for presidency was first fought between Subhas Chandra Bose and Pattabhi Sitaramayya in 1939.

Justice M.C. Jain's interim report29 suggested that the DMK and its leadership had been involved in encouraging Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and his followers.

parties had given a guarantee that they would accept [the] Radcliffe award without any question, they had to keep quiet and accept whatever had been decreed by Radcliffe in what was by far the strangest, most illogical and arbitrarily drawn boundary line in history between two countries.11

The Unfinished Memoirs,

my career in public life, I have had the rare privilege of being a participant in many of the defining moments of our country's democratic history. Our nation and its people have, and continue to, offer me an abundance of love, faith and affection in a measure that I find

retelling of India's political history as I have experienced it. The Dramatic Decade is the first of a trilogy; this book covers the period between 1969 and 1980. It begins with my entry into public life as a member of the Rajya Sabha and covers three epochal events—the war that led to the liberation

She has a unique quality which I have myself commented upon on several occasions. She has built her own career—fearlessly and aggressively—and what she is today is the outcome of her own struggle, labour and hard work. She has an aura about her which is difficult to explain but impossible to ignore.

where freedom is menaced, or justice threatened or where aggression takes place, we cannot be and shall not be neutral'. Indira

The proposal to introduce GST was first mooted by P. Chidambaram in his budget speech of 2006

The government of India and the government of Jammu and Kashmir are determined to ensure that every Kashmiri lives with dignity having equal rights and equal opportunities.

I feel that when the reforms in UN take place and the Security Council will be expanded in the permanent membership category, India will have a place, I hope so, but first it is to be expanded.

We must recognise that in a globalised world, we cannot remain insulated from external developments. India's trade performance in the current year has been robust, surpassing pre-crisis export levels and pre-crisis export growth trends. We have diversified our export baskets and our export destinations.

The fact remains that secularism is inherent in the Indian system, in the Indian ethos and culture. India cannot but be secular.

Of course, running a coalition government in a country like India is a difficult task. More so when Congress leads the coalition, since most of the political parties were anti-Congress. To have a coalition, to run a coalition government, you require a lot of adjustments, a lot of flexibility.

We are all equal children before our mother; and India asks each one of us, in whatsoever 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.

India is content with itself, and driven by the will to sit on the high table of prosperity. It will not be deflected in its mission by noxious practitioners of terror.

If the rise of European colonisation began in 18th century India, then the rallying cry of 'Jai Hind!' also signalled its end in 1947.

Trickle-down theories do not address the legitimate aspirations of the poor. We must lift those at the bottom so that poverty is erased from the dictionary of modern India.

Teaching was my transition from student life to working life. In those days, our system of education was a little different. The number of students in each class was huge. I think in political science general, which I taught, it was around 100.

There is no humiliation more abusive than hunger.

Indian president does not determine policy. Here President is not the policy maker. In the name of the president, the cabinet takes the policy decision.