Pratibha Patil

Some Lesser Known Facts About Pratibha Patil

• In 1962, at the age of 27, she became the youngest elected member in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly of that time.

• She has been the first women President of India, so far.

• Patil had been loyal to the INC and the Nehru-Gandhi family for decades. She was also the cook of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

• Her opposition candidate, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, during the presidential election was supported by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), although the Shiv Sena party, which was a part of NDA, supported her because of her Marathi origin.

• She has often been criticised by a section of people for her belief in supernatural things as she claims that she frequently receives messages from Dada Lekhraj, a dead guru. 

• She also made an uncanny statement in 1975, that those suffering from hereditary diseases should be sterilised.

•  She commuted the death sentences of 35 petitioners to life sentence, which is a record and defended herself saying that the President had granted clemency to the petitioners after the advice of the Home Ministry.

• Another case after her retirement included her desire to claim both an official government car and fuel allowance for the running of a private car, despite rules clearly stipulating that this was an either/or situation.

•  She became the second President and the first woman to flew in a fighter plane, Sukhoi,  after her predecessor Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam who also flew in a ‘Sukhoi -30’. She also made a history and a world record as a woman or a State Head to fly in a fighter plane at the age of 74.

• Her Presidential tenure often made headlines for spending more money on foreign trips compared to her predecessors and also Sometimes accompanied by as many as 11 members of her family. According to sources, in all these trips she has spent about 205 Crore Indian rupees.

• She had also set up various ventures such as  Vidya Bharati Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, an educational institute which runs a chain of schools and colleges in Amravati, Jalgaon,Pune and Mumbai, a Shram Sadhana Trust, which runs hostels for working women in New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune, an engineering college for rural students in Jalgaon district, and also founded a cooperative sugar factory known as Sant Muktabai Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana at Muktainagar.

• She had also founded a CooperativeBank, Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank, whose license was cancelled by the Reserve Bank of India as the bank had given illegal loans to her relatives that exceeded the bank’s share capital. It had also given a loan to her sugar mill which was never repaid. The government liquidator of the bank, P. D. Nigam, said that as per the audit report, Six of the top ten defaulters in the bank were linked to her relatives.

• Pratibha Patil, along with her brother GN Patil, collected 1,89,105 rupees for the Tsunami Relief to be given to Chief Minister’s Relief Fund but did NOT deposit it to the said account.

•  Unlike her predecessor,  A.P.J.  Abdul Kalam, who actively traveled and gave lectures on science throughout India. The least she did was the encouragement of table tennis in schools.

•  Her Son, Rajendra (Raosaheb) Shekhawat,  a Congress MLA was interrogated by the Amravati police in connection with the seizure of Rs 1 crore in hard currency when he was coming from Nagpur in a car. The money was hidden in the luggage compartment of the car. He explained it as “party funds” meant for distribution to Congress candidates ahead of the civic polls in the year 2012.

• Here is the video of her last speech given after her demit from the post of President in the year 2012.