‘Mukherjee Sir’ revisits history for students

Syed Ali Ahmed

Tribune News Service 

New Delhi, September 4 

President Pranab Muhkerjee today turned teacher on the eve of Teachers' Day and taught political history of the country to a senior class of 60 students at Dr Rajendra Prasad Sarvodaya Vidyalaya located in the President House complex.

Asking students to call him Mukherjee Sir instead of President, he told students that his first teacher was his mother at a village in West Bengal and all the credit went to his mother for whatever he was today. 

Mukherjee said after completing his education he used to teach in a government college in Calcutta University but in 1969 he had given up his teaching job considering that he was not doing justice to his students as most of the time he used to be in Parliament. "But in Parliament, I used to present everything like a teacher," he said.

He also taught how the third battle of Panipat had made the then Indian government weak and the British government by the East India Company got its benefit and captured the country and ruled it for about 190 years.

The President explained when the country got independence and how the Constitution of India was written. How many members were in the Constituent Assembly to frame the Constitution that had come into force on January 26, 1950. The secular and socialist words were added in the Constitution through 44th amendment in 1975. The first general election was held in 1952, the President taught. 

He said freedom meant not only political freedom, but economic and social freedom also that was why first Prime Minister of independent India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru said, "We want complete (purna) swaraj." 

The President also taught students about the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 and the movement of Anna Hazare for Jan Lokpal.