Who was H.C. Mukherjee?

When the first President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, was visiting Calcutta (Kolkata), Harendra Coomar Mukherjee (commonly known as HC Mukherjee), the Governor of Bengal (1951-1956), appeared at the Dumdum Airport (now Netaji Subhash airport) to receive the President. When they met at airport lobby and before the Governor could understood anything, the President bowed down instead of shaking hands, and touched the Governor's feet. The Governor was overwhelmed and hugged his favorite student to his chest, fellow ministers, bureaucrats and journalists were shocked to see this protocol broken, the President bowed his head at the feet of the Governor which they never saw this scene. It was later learned that when Harendra Mukherjee was a professor at Presidency College, President Rajendra Prasad was his favorite student at Presidency College, so it was not a mistake to pay homage to Guru, every student should know today. No matter how big he is.

HC Mukherjee was an educationist and the first doctorate in English from the Calcutta University. He had a long faculty career at Calcutta University. He was a freedom fighter and senior member of congress party. He was the Vice-President of the Constituent Assembly of India for drafting the Constitution of India before Partition of India, and the third Governor of West Bengal.

There were allegations against this humble Governor as he was not operating the Governor office lavishly and was running it in a simple manner, and the guests coming from Delhi were quite disturbed. The complaint went to PM Jawaharlal Nehru, who was angry and decided not to send HC Mukherjee as the Governor of another state after his current role. PM Nehru being brought up as rich man’s son, lived and studied in England, loved English lifestyle, European holidays and five star lavish lifestyle. Without any hesitation, Harendra Mukherjee said that even if he himself was not uncomfortable living in this environment, then his guests, no matter how big or small, would have to stay here. He certainly do not live in the dust (Bengal Governor House was once Viceroy house before the current Rashtrapati Bhavan came up in 1930s in New Delhi) and dirt of the Raj Bhavan, but the Raj Bhavan would not be a five-star luxury hotel for ‘sarkari babus’. The Governor HC Mukherjee had strict instructions that the expensive curtains and furniture of the Raj Bhavan should not be removed every two days for clean-up because India is a poor country. So if anyone got angry and complain to New Delhi, he would resign from the post of Governor.

By stopping the wastage of government money, he saved eight lakh rupees in the Governor's fund at that time (November 1, 1951 to August 8, 1956). Today, the value of that money is probably not very small in arithmetic terms! Perhaps the people of that day, who saw him, or heard his story from the elders of the house, were proud of him. To be honest, if we say that he was a simple, unassuming person, it is a bit of an understatement to say about HC Mukherjee.

On a cold winter morning, he saw the is sleeping curled up on the cold white stone balcony next to the lift, occasionally his whole body is tensing and curling up due to the discomfort of the winter. The Governor after seeing this, he silently went slowly to his suite, brought a warm shawl of his own, put it on the sleeping liftman's body. He himself switched on the lift and went downstairs for his morning walk. The sun came out on the balcony of the Raj Bhavan, and liftman Alok Raut's sleep was broken, he saw that he was wearing an expensive shawl, but there was no lift cage in front. The liftman was a little shocked, then he was even more surprised when he saw the Governor himself driving the lift and going up. Realizing his mistake, he cried. But the Governor hugged him and said, ‘You and I are the same brother. Think of the elder brother gifting this shawl to the younger brother. You wear it, I gave it to you’.

On 8 November 1953, it was a winter evening in Lat Bagan, Barrackpore. The Governor had gone up to the Flagstaff House in Lat Bagan the day before, accompanied by ADC Captain S. Banerjee and Security Inspector Tinkari Mukherjee. Early in the morning, without informing anyone, HC Mukherjee appeared at the local TB Hospital adjacent to the bungalow with a stick. Almost no one in the hospital knew him, and no one was with him. He went straight into the patients' room, saw water dripping on the ground, no nurses or doctors. After talking to a few patients, he went straight to the staff nurse's room, introduced himself. He called IG of Police, Harisadhan Ghosh Chowdhury on the phone to Barrackpore. He angrily said that I am begging money from the businessman and charity for the T.B. fund and the ‘Nawab government’ doctors, the nurses do not provide even a little food and water to the patients! What are they thinking! Needless to say, TB was so infamous at that time as a deadly disease, that even the common people thought it was better to stay seven feet away from T.B. patients.

Once, the Governor himself called all the employees of the Raj Bhavan and invited them for tea in the banquet hall of the Raj Bhavan. After the tea party was over, he left his chair and said to everyone in a pleading tone, you are the employees of the Raj Bhavan, I am your poor governor. If you look at the accounts of the T.B. fund after office holidays, then he will not need separate people and money to maintain them, with that money he can buy some fruits and medicines for the T.B. patients. Everyone bowed their heads in respect, because as the governor at that time, even though he himself received a salary of five thousand, he would take only rupees five hundred, the rest of the money would be given to the needy widows or to the education sector or to the T.B. fund.

There were many great leaders in the congress party but congress downgraded the party to Gandhi-Nehru dynastic party and side-lined the real selfless leaders. Congress during the Nehru era became a party of ‘chamchas’ and sycophants. It is still a ‘yes man dynastic party’. Ex-PM PV Narsimha Rao tried his best to change this mind-set in early 1990s and we all know how congress ill-treated him post his PM tenure.

Only family dynasts hold power in congress and rest are all chamchas

Picture source: Google / Respective rightful owner

Harendra Coomar Mookerjee - Wikipedia

Indian politician (1887–1956) Harendra Coomar Mookherjee (3 October 1887 – 7 August 1956), also spelt as H.C. Mukherjee , was the Vice-President of the Constituent Assembly of India for drafting the Constitution of India before Partition of India , and the third Governor of West Bengal after India became a republic with partition into India and Pakistan . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] He was an educationalist , prominent Christian leader of Bengal , and was the chairman of the Minority rights sub-committee and Provincial constitution committee of the Constituent Assembly—consisting of indirectly elected representatives to draft the Constitution of India, including for provinces of present Pakistan and Bangladesh (then East Bengal ) – the assembly considered only Muslims and Sikhs as religious minorities – after India became republic, the same Constituent Assembly became the first Parliament of India in 1947. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Born in Bengali Christian family in Bengal , he did MA, PhD, D.Litt , and was the first Indian to receive a Doctor of Philosophy degree (from the University of Calcutta ). Mookerjee's doctorate was in English literature, and he went on to become a philanthropist, and teacher. [ 9 ] At Calcutta University, he served at various positions—as lecturer, secretary, council of Post-Graduate Teaching in Arts, Inspector of Colleges, professor of English from 1936 to 1940, and head of English department. He was later nominated to "Bengal Legislative Council" and elected to "Bengal Legislative Assembly." [ 8 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ] While he was vice-president of the Constituent Assembly of India, and chairman of the Minority rights sub-committee and Provincial constitution committee, he began suggesting reservation for the upliftment of minorities in all fields, including politics. With partition of India, he changed his stance and limited it to provision for preservation of the language and culture of minorities—over the period, this has been interpreted to open educational institutes and other institutions by minority communities. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 7 ] [ 12 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ] Following the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, Dr. Mookerjee was appointed Governor of West Bengal from 1 November 1951 through 7 August 1956. While working as Bengal governor, he served as the president of "Desh Bandhu Memorial Society" from 1953. He died in office on 7 August 1956 in Kolkata . [ 15 ] He represented Bengali Christians in Bengal, and after his entry into national politics, he was elected as the president of All India Conference of Indian Christians , representing All-Indian Christians other than Anglo-Indians , who were organized as the All India Anglo-Indian Association . [ 16 ] [ 17 ] He was also the member of Indian National Congress and participated in national movements representing Bengali Christian community. [ 18 ] [ 19 ] He confessed to his community as: We have to demonstrate by every word we utter and by every act we

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harendra_Coomar_Mookerjee

Harendra Coomar Mookerjee - Alchetron, the free social encyclopedia

Harendra Coomar Mookerjee (18871956), also spelt as H.C. Mookherjee or H.C. Mukherjee or H.C. Mukerji or H.C. Mukerjee, was the Vicepresident of the Constituent Assembly of India for drafting the Constitution of India before Partition of India, and the first Governor of West Bengal after India bec

https://alchetron.com/Harendra-Coomar-Mookerjee