The country?s eighth President, former finance minister and governor of the Reserve Bank of India and also a member of the first Parliament of free India?Ramaswamy Venkataraman, passed away on Tuesday, at the age of 98.
His wife and son-in-law were beside him when he breathed his last, the hospital?s administrative head Brigadier AK Sharma told.
The Centre declared a seven-day state mourning in the country as a mark of respect to the former President.
There will no official entertainment and flags will fly at half-mast in all government buildings during the period. The government has also cancelled Beating Retreat.
Often called RV, Venkataraman had the distinction of working with four prime ministers including VP Singh, Chandrashekhar and PV Narasimha Rao, during his five year term from July 25, 1987 to July 25, 1992. His tenure in fact witnessed the effects of a fractured mandate on the Indian polity at a time when coalition governments were yet to come in vogue.
A lawyer by profession, Venkataraman had to deal with a number of tumultuous issues including the Bofors gun scandal, the Sri Lankan crisis, the stock scam and the defamation Bill and most significantly the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. These turbulent years of his tenure were later dealt at length in his biography, ??My Presidency Years.??
An old Congress hand, he was chosen specifically by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to head the Republic of India. Prior to President, he also spent four-year as Vice-President in August, 1984.
But for Venkataraman, these were just the final laurels to rest upon. Born on December 4, 1910 in Rajamadam in Tamil Nadu, he was actively involved in politics since his early days as a trade union activist. He was then elected to free India?s provisional Parliament in 1950 and then to the first Parliament in 1952.
He rejoined national politics in 1977, when he was elected as a member of the Lok Sabha from his constituency of Madras (South). Under the Congress government headed by Indira Gandhi from 1980, he was appointed as the Union finance minister.
He had also held the post of defence minister, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission and was in-charge of home ministry for some time. He was later also appointed the governor of the Reserve Bank of India.