Parvati Bhawan

Murmu Inaugurates Parvati Bhawan, Navdurga Path Skywalk Project

President of India, Draupadi Murmu on Thursday inaugurated ‘Parvati Bhawan’ and ‘Navdurga Path’ Skywalk at Vaishno Devi Bhawan in Katra, Jammu and Kashmir.

She also visited Mata Vaishno Devi Temple.

President Murmu also graced and addressed the 20th convocation of the University of Kashmir at Srinagar on Wednesday.

According to a press statement from the President’s Secretariat, speaking on the occasion, the President said that the country is proud of the responsible youth of Kashmir. She urged students of the University of Kashmir to actively participate in social service along with their studies. She said that by doing this, they could bring social change and set an example. She was happy to note that alumni have brought glory to this university by serving the country.

Referring to the motto of the University of Kashmir – ‘let us move from darkness to light’, the President said, “The more our youth move towards the light of education and towards the light of peace, the more our country will progress.”

She added that the society and country whose youth follow the path of development and discipline, move forward on the path of progress and prosperity.

The President. during her speech noted that 55 per cent of students at Kashmir University are girls.

She said that these “students present the picture of India and its destiny”. The women and girls are ready to play a bigger role in the leadership of the country, she said expressing confidence in ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Act’ 2023 that would be “proved to be a revolutionary step towards women-led development in our country,” she said. (ANI)

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Suriya National Award

Suriya after winning National Award for Best Actor

Actor Suriya won the National Award for Best Actor for ‘Soorarai Pottru’ on Friday.

President Draupadi Murmu presented him with the award in New Delhi. Upon receiving the honour, Suriya, while speaking to ANI, expressed his elation and said, “Huge honour. Truly grateful to the National Film Award jury and the Government of India. A lot of emotions running in my mind. I have a lot of people to thank…Getting goosebumps. Truly a moment which I’ll never forget”
Suriya whose real name is Saravanan Sivakumar won the National Award for his work in the film ‘Soorarai Pottru’ which is a dramatized portrayal of retired Army Captain GR Gopinath’s life as the founder of the low-cost airline Air Deccan.

Despite having a straight OTT release, the film was a big success, with fans flooding Twitter with rave reviews. Suriya and Guneet Monga both co-produced the film.

‘Soorarai Pottru’ also received the National Award for Best Feature Film. Directed by Sudha Kongara, the film also features Paresh Rawal and Aparna Balamurali in the lead roles.

In fact, Aparna Balamurali also received the National Award for Best Actress in the lead role for her performance in the film.

‘Soorarai Pottru’ is currently being made in Hindi, with actors Akshay Kumar and Radhika Madan in the lead roles. The release date of the film is still not announced.

Along with Suriya, actor Ajay Devgn also received the National Award for Best Actor in the lead role for his performance in the film ‘Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior. (ANI)

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‘Murmu’s Presidency Is A Ploy To Hinduise Adivasi Identity’

Dr Goldy M George, a Chhattisgarh based writer-activist who specializes in ethnography, unravels RSS agenda behind BJP’s presidential nominee

The nomination of Draupadi Murmu for the ceremonial post of President is not merely representative symbolism, but a clear manifestation of the RSS-BJP’s core political project — to declare India as a Hindu nation. Apart from her Adivasi identity, behind Draupadi Murmu’s nomination, there is a far-reaching vision of how she would be used to dismantle the Adivasi-indigenous movement against the usurpation of land, forest, water, minerals, resources etc.

Today, Adivasis stand like a wall — an indispensable impediment — against any usurpation of rural resources by corporate houses. There has been a tremendous resistance movement on these issues for decades in Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

The other agenda is the current delisting movement being spearheaded by the RSS-run Janjati Suraksha Manch. For this to succeed, the BJP needs a person from such a community to head the highest constitutional position. That is, transferring land, water, forest, minerals, resources, etc. to corporate houses; reducing the population of tribals by delisting; declaring scheduled areas as general (open); replacing non-Adivasis during elections in these areas, by bringing an upper caste candidates, to tame and subjugate the Adivasi population and; to declare India as a Hindu Rashtra.

Draupadi Murmu is part of this massive Hindu Rashtra project. In the past, there are two instances of Dalit presidents in India. Did it make a difference to the social, political and economic status of Dalits? Certainly, whenever a person from an oppressed section enters the highest constitutional office, it installs a new sense of empowerment among the citizens hailing from similar backgrounds. However, it did not happen much in the case of the current President Ram Nath Kovind, though, it certainly had some socio-political impact, although not economical, in the case of KR Narayanan, the first Dalit president. Both come from modest backgrounds, who went on to become the first citizens of this country. A cursory observation into their tenure puts light on a few facts.

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Kovind is born into a Scheduled Caste (Koli community) in Parakh, Kanpur Dehat, while Narayanan belonged to the Paravan caste (whose members are involved in fishery, boat-building, sea trade). While Kovind remained a rubber stamp of the BJP-RSS government, Narayanan was way different. He never succumbed to pressure tactics. He ensured that the office of the president is still the supreme.

Narayanan took stand against the police firing and killing of Adivasis in Kalinganagar, Odisha. This leader from Kerala distinguished himself by twice returning the Union Cabinet’s recommendations to dismiss elected state governments, sending a firm message that he was no ‘rubber stamp’.’

In 1997, when I K Gujral was the Prime Minister, the Union Cabinet sent him a proposal to dismiss the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, but he refused. A year later in 1998, he sent back the Vajpayee cabinet’s recommendation to dismiss the Rabri Devi government. Both times he went by the book and won praise. Narayanan set several precedents and enlarged the scope of India’s highest constitutional office. He became the first President of India to have cast his vote while remaining in office.

Sworn in as president, in his inaugural address, Narayanan said, “That the nation has found a consensus for its highest office in someone who has sprung from the grass-roots of our society and grown up in the dust and heat of this sacred land is symbolic of the fact that the concerns of the common man have now moved to the centre-stage of our social and political life. It is this larger significance of my election rather than any personal sense of honour that makes me rejoice on this occasion.” Such bold steps and statements were the hallmark of Narayanan in office. He sent a clear message on the questions of izzat of Dalits as a Dalit in power giving the scope and vision of a new enlightened India.

What is the track record of Murmu in terms of tribal and Dalit upliftment? Born on June 20, 1958, in Baidaposi village of Mayurbhanj district in Odisha, she hails from a poor Santhal Adivasi background. She has come through hardships and after completing her BA joined as a school teacher. In 1997 she became a politician under the banner of BJP. Not much detailed narratives could be built upon from her past. It’s difficult to tell a clear story of her stint as the Minister of State with Independent Charge for Commerce and Transportation (March 6, 2000 – August 6, 2002) and Fisheries and Animal Resources Development (August 6, 2002-May 16, 2004). However, as Governor in 2017, Murmu refused to give assent to a bill approved by the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly seeking amendments to the Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act, 1908, and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act, 1949. Murmu, as governor, sought an explanation from the Raghubar Das-led BJP government about how the changes would bring in better living standards among the Adivasis.

The Adivasi situation in most parts of the country is more or less the same. Almost all Adivasis zones are full of mineral and natural resources. Almost 50 per cent of India’s mineral resources are found in Scheduled Area or extended scheduled area. Since the idea of planned development began, Adivasis in India began to face the worst history of indigenous dispossession.

They were and are being not only robbed off their resource base, but are also colonised into a new cultural pattern. Hinduisation of Adivasis is at a helm and this is yet another major challenge to their culture as a whole. These altogether would lead to the physical alienation and cultural genocide of Adivasis in India. One can only wait and watch how far would Draupadi Murmu be able to address these questions as the first citizen of India.

The Presidential Suite Is Booked

In electing Droupadi Murmu, a tribal woman, as the President, a college of India’s lawmakers will be maintaining a record far better than Britain, the United States and others who swear by democracy, gender equality and diversity, and vigorously prescribe it for other societies.

In the unlikely event of her losing, she will, at least, not be called a ‘b…ch’ the way Hillary Clinton was, before and after being defeated. Sadly though, calling names and targeting women and the weaker sections of the society is on the rise in India as well.

No need to bother that it is called Rashtrapati Bhavan, denoting a male occupant. Murmu will be the second woman to enter it after Pratibha Patil ended her tenure a decade back. What was derided as tokenism then will become the norm. But whether that helps women and tribal remains to be seen.

Talking of norms, India’s past record has been one of religious diversity with two Muslims and a Sikh. Although chosen by the prime minister of the day – which makes Indian democracy, essentially a “prime minister-o-cracy” – past presidents have not necessarily been politicians and not always belonged to his/her party.

Look at their eminence. The first, Rajendra Prasad, a front-line freedom fighter, chaired the Constituent Assembly. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was a philosopher whom even Joseph Stalin heard with respect. Zakir Husain set up educational institutions. Scientist APJ Abdul Kalam, a devout Muslim who also visited Hindu temples, remained a national favourite, enough to be considered for a second run, long after demitting office.

Giani Zail Singh, although not a part of the social elite, defied a mixed assessment of him before, during and after his tenure as the president. He bore the pain of witnessing his faith’s most revered shrine being stormed.

Few would remember that Murmu was also in the reckoning in 2017. In selecting her, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led ruling alliance made a deft political move, wooing an undecided Odisha, where Murmu was once a minister, and Jharkhand that has 27 percent tribal population. The opposition-ruled Jharkhand was a “swing state”, to use the lexicon of the American elections. It now bridges the modest shortfall in voters’ and ensures her victory.

It wasn’t so before. Many of the 14 past presidents won after token contests. Opposition candidates resigned top positions to contest, although the outcome was foregone. That, in itself, testifies to India’s democratic tradition.

The opposition did have a chance – arithmetically, though not politically – but frittered it away. Differences – ideological, individual and ego-fed – led to some parties treated as untouchables. Opposition’s Mayawati will vote for Murmu. Unsurprisingly, two octogenarians, Farooq Abdullah and Sharad Pawar declined, and so did Gopal Krishna Gandhi.

Yet, the choice of Yashwant Sinha, an administrator with vast experience who, at 84, continues to fight, ‘relentless’ as the title of his memoirs suggests, symbolises a contest, not for votes, but of ideas and changing values that the polity is currently witnessing.

Times are a-changin. That BJP president J P Nadda introduced Murmu on the party platform and not as the NDA nominee. The other is her comparison with Radhakrishnan, as she was once a teacher.

India has come a long way, in terms of the candidate’s curriculum vitae (CV), but it has also traversed from the hallowed portals of Oxford and Cambridge universities to the classrooms of its much-neglected tribal belt.

Murmu’s choice, it is being said, falls well within the ‘Hindutva’ plans of appropriating non-Hindu, and majorly Christian, tribal population across the heartland to the North-East. Only time can tell if this goes beyond tokenism and benefits those who form eight percent of the country’s population. And how it furthers the majoritarian agenda.

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Nobody has talked of a second term for the outgoing Ram Nath Kovind. For the record, no President has been repeated except the first, Rajendra Prasad. He was Jawaharlal Nehru’s political equal. Nehru’s attempt to elevate the then Vice President Radhakrishnan after Prasad’s first term was disallowed by the Congress seniors.

Indeed, the two had differences in their respective roles. Prasad consulted experts who told him that the Indian Constitution did not envisage an activist president. That has settled the issue.

This time on, there is none of that animated coffee house debate canvassing more powers to the President vis-a- vis the Prime Minister. It is a useless political exercise.

The Constitution prescribes an all-powerful Prime Minister and his/her cabinet and a President who is generally titular and ceremonial, playing a key role only in the formation of a government.

To that, one must add troubled times that befall us from time to time, when he/she is also the conscience-keeper of the nation – but one who must act only within the Constitution’s ambit.

Some, but not all, Vice-Presidents got elevated to the presidency. Among those who did not were Justice Hidayatullah, B D Jatti, Krishan Kant and Hameed Ansari. Ansari got two terms as the Vice President.

Whatever their functions and powers, the offices of the President and the Vice-President are political in essence. This necessitates that they are in tune with the thinking and actions of the elected government of the day. This does not always happen and even if the institutions do not clash, those occupying them have differed on issues time and again.

Zail Singh did convey his unhappiness at the storming of the Golden Temple and wished to visit it. His vibes with Rajiv Gandhi were iffy and a coterie in the Congress party exploited it. Those were turbulent times, but wiser counsel prevailed to prevent a political face-off that would have set a wrong precedence.

K R Narayanan was unhappy with the Gujarat riots of 2002. His wife received and consoled in the Rashtrapati Bhavan women of the victims’ families.

Pranab Mukherjee and Ansari were critical, but kept well within the ambit of public and political correctness, of the spirit and intent behind some of the omissions and commissions by the Modi government and/or the impact they caused. Both stressed on the need for rule of law to prevail at all times and on the wisdom of the government carrying all sections of the people along.

Both sought to hold the mirror to the government leadership, stressing the need for an inclusive approach in times of protests by many sections of the society over perceived acts of intolerance by members of the government, the ruling party and their numerous front organisations. All that has ended with their exit.

Ansari’s emphasis on treatment of religious minorities earned him much trolling in the social media – mainly because he is a Muslim. He also earned from Modi a farewell, loaded with sarcasm and political messaging.

Mukherjee and Ansari have told their stories in their memoirs. Whether they got paid the way the Clintons ($15 million) and the Obamas ($80 million) is a different matter. But for sure, they did not descend as Members of Parliament like Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari. Nor did they launch a political party or turn on TV anchors like General (retd.) Pervez Musharraf!

Come August, there will be a vacancy for the Vice President’s office. Will Venkaiah Naidu, like Ansari, get a second term? The “prime minister-o-cracy” may have already worked that out.

The writer can be reached at mahendraved07@gmail.com