‘We’ve lost a passionate teacher, a patron of innovation’

AHMEDABAD: The passing of Pranab Mukherjee, the 13th President of India, saddened the education community in the city, which had been attached to the politician in various capacities.
Prof Anil Gupta, his long-time associate who also conducted the PGP elective ‘Public Policy for the Inclusive Development of India’ at IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) with him and Prof Vijaya Sherry Chand, said the lectures he conducted at IIM-A were an essence of his political career that spanned over 45 years. “As many know, he was a lecturer in the beginning of his career, and education remained closed to his heart,” he said.
Prof Gupta said they had lost a passionate teacher and a patron of innovations. “Who would have thought that farmers and teachers could stay at Rashtrapati Bhavan? He continued the legacy started by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and gave impetus to grassroots innovations.
Prof Sherry Chand said all the inputs of the former President were built on the primacy of constitutional values and the principle of equitable development of our society. “His memory was phenomenal and his ability to draw on history so strong that he would effortlessly relate Fazlul Huq’s Bengal Agricultural Debtors’ Act (1938) and the Debt Settlement Boards with the current agrarian crisis,” he said.
Mukherjee was the chief guest at the 62nd convocation of Gujarat Vidyapith in December 2015. In his address, Mukherjee urged the graduating students to use their education effectively and apply Gandhian principles in their lives. ‘With the distinct training of Heart, Hand and Head which is Nai Talim, the onus is on you to construct a Samarth Bharat,’ he had said.
Dr Ramesh Kapadia, director of Universal Healing Program Center (UHPC), said that the entire Vidyapith family mourns his loss.