India set to have tribal woman as President

Unless something unforeseen happens, Draupadi Murmu, an Adivasi (tribal) woman from the eastern state of Odisha will become the President of India this month.

Under the Constitution, the President is elected by an electoral college comprising elected members of the two houses of Parliament and the legislatures of all states and union territories.

Polling to choose the successor of President Ram Nath Kovind, whose term ends on July 24, is scheduled for July 18.

Draupadi Murmu, the front-running candidate, is the nominee of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its partners in the National Democratic Alliance.

They are believed to have the numbers to ensure her victory.

She is also drawing support from outside the NDA ranks. All parties of Odisha, her home state, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the tribal party that rules Jharkhand, Janata Dal (United), Bihar’s ruling party, and YSR Congress, the ruling party of Andhra Pradesh, are among those who have pledged support to her.

The Indian government functions in the name of the President but executive power vests in the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister, whose advice is binding on the President. However, there are occasions when the President has to exercise discretion — as, for instance, in deciding whom to ask to form the government when no party has a majority in the Lok Sabha.

While opposition parties were struggling to find a common candidate, Prime Minister Narendra Modi confounded them by picking Draupadi Murmu as the BJP candidate.

It was a repeat performance. He had similarly confounded them when he chose Kovind, a Dalit, as the Presidential candidate five years ago.

Adivasis and Dalits, officially classified as Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes respectively, are the most depressed classes of India, having been victims of social discrimination and economic exploitation for about 2,000 years. The elevation of members of these communities to august offices must, therefore, be seen as milestones of progress.

In 1997, the 50th year of Independence, KR Narayanan became the first Dalit President.

Ram Nath Kovind was the second.

A quarter century later, in the 75th year of Independence comes the first Adivasi President — and a woman at that.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a grandson of Mahatna Gandhi, and Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar, were among the candidates the non-BJP parties considered. Both were reluctant to enter the contest in the absence of opposition unity.

The leaders of 17 parties then chose Yashwant Sinha, a former BJP leader who is now a strong critic of the party, as their Presidential candidate. One of them was Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren.

When the BJP chose a tribal candidate, he quickly switched support to her.

If it is not too late, all opposition parties must switch support to her if only to avoid the accusation that they stood in the way of the first Adivasi President.

Draupadi Murmu was a late entrant in politics. She started life as a government clerk and later worked as a teacher.

Her political career began with her election to the Rairangpur, a city council in 1997. Elected to the Odisha Assembly on the BJP ticket in 2000 and in 2009, she was a Minister in the Biju Janata Dal-BJP coalition government. She also served as Governor of Jharkhand. It looks as though she was put through a crash course to equip her for the office of the President.