The moment that 64-year-old Droupadi Murmu’s nomination was announced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the presidential polls, her win was certain — not only due to the mathematics of it but also due to the socio-political significance of her candidature. Murmu, now Madam President, took oath on Monday morning after country-wide presidential polls were held last week. The Opposition camp had fielded Yashwant Sinha — who, candidly, had nothing going for him apart from his loose-mouthed statements which usually are a departure from reality. Murmu, on the other hand, had most cards laid out in her favour.
Murmu’s candidature is a tectonic shift in the way India thinks, signalling that as a country, we are aggressively moving towards our roots and civilisational glory. Murmu, a teacher, comes from a tribal community belonging to the Santhal tribe. The tribal community in India consists of over 104 million people, making up about 8.5 percent of the total population of the country. Despite such a high number the tribals have been historically politically neglected and as a result have stayed backward and trapped in the cycle of poverty. For the BJP, it has certainly been a challenge to woo them in their wings in many states. Despite high penetration of the Modi government’s welfare schemes, the tribals have been hard to reach even to pass on awareness regarding available benefits from the government.
Murmu occupying the highest constitutional office of the country will most certainly put the spotlight on the problems of the tribals and as a result help the Modi governments’ outreach efforts to them, followed by the penetration of available welfare schemes. The significance of having a woman occupying the Rashtrapati Bhavan and that too, a self-made one, who has spent over four decades of her life in social and political service will without a doubt sow the seed of dreaming big in young girls, irrespective of the economic status they are born into. She is also the first President of India who was born after India’s Independence, thus adding another layer to her solid background. Hailing from Odisha and having been the first female Governor of Jharkhand (a state with a very high tribal population) has already demonstrated the effectiveness of her efforts.
Needless to say, she won the presidential polls with an overwhelming majority with many legislators from the Opposition camps also cross-voting in her favour abandoning their fielded candidate — Sinha.
On Monday, soon after she took the Oath of Office, she delivered her first speech as the President of India, highlighting her vision for the country on the 75th year of Independence. She spoke on what she considers India’s strengths and how she’d like to build on them.
Sometimes, in this age of social media, folks tend to forget the rich experience which is gained from constantly working on the ground, amidst people — problem solving, listening, action-oriented goals and such. In a world obsessed with lingering on Twitter, making opinions from social media narratives, the fact that Murmu barely maintained a social media presence, let alone tweeting ferociously from a ‘blue-tick’ profile, may have certainly kicked many folks back to the reality of the world, now adulterated by fake social media narratives.
A chord from her speech that repeatedly struck was how proud she was of the country — she cited many examples out of which the most recent was India’s collaborative and united effort in our fight against Covid-19. You could almost sense the pride in voice as she said how in this ‘Azaadi Ka Amrit Kaal’, we are heading to a new, renewed, self-confident India. She expressed immense pride in the fact that the world remained grateful to India for our assistance and our ability to plug in supply-chain gaps arising out of the economic upheaval due to the pandemic. Truly, the global community does have a lot to contribute to India’s effort in keeping the global supply chains, especially of essential items, stable.
What also remained unmissable in her speech is faith in the youth and the women of India — by reiterating multiple times about how their contributions in moulding India’s visible future will be absolutely critical. Her remark about how her tribal roots have helped her experience the importance of living closely connected to nature and learning how to give back invited a loud applause from the august audience. Today, when the world is at the brink of a looming climate change crisis, this perspective is much valued and will certainly give direction to not only India’s climate policies but also perhaps influence global actions.
To conclude, Indians have much to look forward to with Madam President Murmu’s term. Much like APJ Kalam’s presidential term, hers already looks like it is going to stay in public memory for decades to come.
The writer is a policy and communications strategist. ‘A Nation to Protect: Leading India Through the Covid Crisis’ is her third book. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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