The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee will receive the first copy of a coffee-table book titled ‘First Citizen: Pranab Mukherjee in Rashtrapati Bhavan’ tomorrow (July 2, 2014) at a function to be held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The book published by The Week magazine will be released by Dr. Karan Singh in the presence of the President and Mr. Philip Mathew, Managing Editor, the Week.

The coffee-table book is a compilation of articles which have appeared in The Week under the title 'First Citizen' from January 2013 to May 2014. The contents cover the President’s initiatives to reach out to citizens on issues concerning them, his tours across the country and abroad, the new initiatives taken to open up the doors of the Rashtrapati Bhavan to the common citizen, the ceremonies associated with the presidency, the Kitchen etc.

The book includes never before seen archival photographs of former Presidents from the Rashtrapati Bhavan collection, interesting new snippets of information and three articles authored by the President on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda which were published in The Week.

In his foreword for this book, the President has written "The Raisina Hill and the buildings in and around Rashtrapati Bhavan has been the stage for much of my public life that spans over five decades. Before I assumed office, I had been to Rashtrapati Bhavan several times, either to be sworn in as Minister in different Governments or as Finance Minister, to brief the President on the Budget before its presentation in Parliament. Yet, it was only after I became a resident of this wonderful building that its importance as a seat of history and value as ‘living heritage’ fully struck me. The fundamental duty and responsibility of the President in our political system is to be the guardian of the Constitution. But, going beyond this task, there are many areas in which Presidents have chosen to carve out their areas of interest. My focus, among other things, has been to open the Rashtrapati Bhavan to the people of India and return it to its past grandeur”.

The Week is one of India's leading news-magazines published by the Malayala Manorama Group, the 125th Anniversary celebrations of which were inaugurated by the President of India at Kottayam in 2013. The Week has been in publication since 1982.

This release issued at 1025 hrs