President Pranab Mukherjee’s retirement years will be spent at 10 Rajaji Marg in New Delhi. The home last housed A.P.J. Abdul Kalam after he retired as President.
The two-storied bungalow has been altered and spruced up to suit the tastes of its new occupant. A library will be set up on the first floor with Mr. Mukherjee’s large collection of books. A lift, added externally without fundamentally altering the building (since it is in the Lutyen’s Bungalow Zone), has been added to facilitate access to the library.
An office for Mr. Mukherjee will be set up on the ground floor. Significantly, a framed picture of the soon-to-retire President in his exercise gear, track pants and a jaunty baseball cap, taken at the presidential abode in Shimla, has been framed and it will be taken to the new house. No other gift or object has been earmarked for removal from Rahstrapati Bhawan to the new house yet.
In his farewell speech to parliamentarians on Sunday, Mr. Mukherjee recalled with fondness his association with former colleagues in Parliament and in public life. However, he has publicly declared, during the release of the second part of his memoirs The Turbulent Years: 1980-1996 in 2015, that there were some secrets that he would never reveal.
He did, however, say that his daughter, Congress leader Sharmishta Mukherjee, will be its custodian after him. “I write at least a page in my diary every day and its custodian is my daughter. I have told her you may digitise the contents if you want, but you will not release them. People may come to know of events when the government of the day releases files related to that period, not by someone’s recollection of it. Some facts are to be buried with me,” he had said.
Ms. Mukherjee will be staying with her father in the new bungalow.
On Tuesday, after Ram Nath Kovind is sworn in as new president, Mr. Mukherjee will directly leave for his new home.
