On 23
January, 1931, the day the first occupant of the Viceroy’s House, Lord Irwin moved
in, Lutyens slipped away from formal dinner without bidding goodbye to the
Viceroy – he stood outside admiring his own creation and then imprinted a kiss
on the grand monument he had built. The H-shaped house with 340 rooms and more
than 200,000 square feet area took 17 years to built (instead of 4 years as
planned) and cost Rs 14 million. Edward Landseer Lutyens, who could not
complete his art school degree and was till then a builder of country homes,
was paid a mere 5000 pound for his toil of 17 years. But the new capital he
built in Delhi along with its crowning glory, Viceroy’s House, made him world
famous.
Pranab
Mukherjee was born 4 years later – 11 December, 1935 - at Mirati village of
Bengal’s Birbhum district. His father Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee was a freedom
fighter, member of AICC and later, an MLA. Pranabbabu still recalls how as a
middle school student, he used to read Constituent Assembly debates in
newspaper every morning. Since those days he always wanted to be in national
politics. His history teacher in school instilled a deep love for history. He
followed it up with post-graduation in both the subjects – political science
and history (he has recently edited official history of Congress). He also has
a degree in law though he has never practiced. He has always remained a village
boy at heart and studied in local school and college. His active participation
in family Durga Puja at Mirati has become a national media event in recent
years. Once Donald Rumsfeld wanted to talk to the Indian Defence Minister on
some urgent issue and was surprised to know that he was at a village.
Pranabbabu explained to him the significance of Durga Puja first before getting
onto the matters of statecraft.
As a
fresh graduate he taught Bengali in a village school. Later he briefly worked
with Post and Telegraph Audit and taught at two colleges near Calcutta. In
1969, he was elected to Rajya Sabha as a member of breakaway Bangla Congress.
Congress in Bengal in those days remained under the iron grip of Atulya Ghosh,
one of the pillars of Syndicate. Rebel congress leader, Ajay Mukherjee, heading
Bangla Congress, forged an alliance with the Communists and came to power. Jyoti
Basu was then the Deputy Chief Minister and it was the Communist leader, who is
believed to have introduced Pranabbabu to his close friend Indira Gandhi. Soon
the young MP joined Congress and became a deputy Minister in 1973. He has held
almost all the important cabinet posts since then, except for the Home
Ministry. He is someone, who loves to read the fine prints and remembers every
statistics. He is quintessentially a committee man, who can reach out to
everyone and iron out every difference to produce the most acceptable draft.
Above all, he is the institutional memory for his party, government and for
parliament. 
Even when
the King and Viceroy asked him to adopt Indo-Sarasenic style, the classicist
architect stuck to his own ideas. Lutyens selected pink sandstone, the
preferred building materials of the Mughals and cream colour Dholpur stone and
decided to build his dream mansion with bricks and stones and very little
cement or steel. Though he never really acknowledged, during the course of
work, he went on adopting a number of elements from Mughal and Rajput
architectures. The most prominent of those being the extensive use of Chajjas,
chattris and jaalis (perforated stone screens). The great dome was his tribute
to Rome’s Pantheon though the design around the drum below it definitely points
to his debt to Sanchi railings. His classic pillars are embellished on top by
four small temple bells – a design he picked up from a Jain temple in
Karnataka. Lutyens managed to win most of his battles regarding site selection,
design and decorations, but lost the most important one to his colleague and
co-builder of New Delhi, Herbert Baker. Since Lutyens joined the project with
the condition that he would build the principal building himself, the best
Baker could have got was the Secretariat. Baker proposed to cut a gradient to
situate his two buildings – North Block and South Block – at the same height
with the Viceroy’s House. Though he signed the agreement regarding this, he
could grasp the significance only later, that this would take away the
prominence from his magnum opus. Then Lutyens protested but to no avail.
Lutyens and Baker then fought a very public battle and did not speak to each
other for many years. This came to be known as Bakerloo of Lutyens.
Pranab
Mukherjee’s rise in Delhi is almost parallel to Congress’ decline in his home
state. Last significant victory for the party in Bengal was in 1984 – riding on
the sympathy wave after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. He has always been
happy to be the key person in Delhi and maintained close friendship with the
left leadership in Bengal – so, there is no surprise in CPM’s decision today to
back his candidature. It is significant that from 1985 to 2010, Pranabbabu
headed the WBPCC. Never comfortable in the heat and dust of grass root politics
and hardcore electoral campaigns, he managed to register his first direct poll
victory in 2004 – wining the Jangipur Lok Sabha seat, which he retained in 2009
too.
A total
of 5 Viceroys, 2 Governor Generals (Mountbatten was both the last Viceroy and
first Governor General) and 12 Presidents have stayed in the house so far.
Accordingly the name of the building was changed twice – from Viceroy’s House
to Government House to Rashtrapati Bhavan. First Indian Governor General C. Rajagopalachari
found the house too big and proposed it to be converted into a hospital. Later,
part of it was temporarily turned into an archaeological museum, which was
shifted to Janpath later on as the National Museum. Only two artifacts still
remain from the museum collection – an Asokan Bull Capital, at the entrance and
a Gupta-period Buddha statue at the Darbar Hall. When he was sort of forced to
stay in this vast mansion, Rajaji decided to shift to a small living quarter
instead of Viceroy’s suite, which he found too ostentatious for his frugal
tastes. So far every President of India has stayed in that small quarter, what
was built as the living quarter of Vicereine’s lady-in-waiting.
There
were two elements of Mughal style, which Lutyens openly admired – gardens and
use of water as a design element. He studied Mughal gardens in Agra, Lahore and
Srinagar before building the huge garden. Though it is called Mughal Garden, it
is actually a mixture of Mughal and European styles. Spread over six hectares,
it starts with a 200 feet by 200 feet lawn. A canal starts from here and gently
falls down the steps, at the far end stands a round pool and fountains are
there everywhere. Apart from other flowering trees and shrubs, there are more
than 250 varieties of roses in the garden, which is opened for public in every
winter.
A voracious reader, Prananbabu is often found reading multiple books
together, at least one of which is likely to be in Bangla. A workaholic, he
takes his dinner - usually fish curry and rice – only after 11. Before he goes
to bed well past midnight, he makes it a point to make entries in his journal,
which he has been keeping for decades now. Surely, future historians will be
ready to pay any price for that journal. If you drive up from India gate to
Raisina Hills, there is just one point - at the entry of Vijay Chowk, when the
dome goes out of vision. Contemporary history will remember him as the best Prime
Minister India never had but early morning in Rashtrapati Bhavan lawn, when he
would be walking alone with his thoughts, what would he consider as his chief legacy?
Will the history student in him re-evaluate the socialist turn of Indian
economy in 1970s and 80s? Will he consider writing the all time best-seller on
Indian Politics?
