President Pranab Mukherjee will on Wednesday receive the first copy of a coffee table book brought out by the Malayala Manorama group containing articles on him.

The book is a compilation of articles which have appeared in ‘The Week’ magazine under the title ‘First Citizen’ from January 2013 to May 2014.

The book titled “First Citizen: Pranab Mukherjee in Rashtrapati Bhavan” will be released by former Union Minister Karan Singh in the presence of the President and Philip Mathew, Managing Editor of ‘The Week’.

In his foreword to the book, Mukherjee has written that the fundamental duty and responsibility of the President in the country’s 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,” he wrote.

The President wrote that he has been to Rashtrapati Bhavan in different capacities as Minister or otherwise during his public life spanning over five decades but it was only after he became a resident of this wonderful building that its importance as a seat of history and value as ‘living heritage’ fully struck him.

“The contents cover the Presidents 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,” a statement from President’s Press Secretary Venu Rajamony said today.

It said the book also 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’.

‘The Week’ is published by the Malayala Manorama Group whose 125th anniversary celebration was inaugurated by the President at Kottayam in 2013.