Ram Nath Kovind

President of India

• Born: October 1, 1945
• Place of Birth: Paraunkh, British India (now India)

Education: Kanpur University

Significance: A lawyer and former governor of the state of Bihar, Ram Nath Kovind, was elected to a five-year term as the president of India in 2017. He was the second Dalit to hold the presidency and the first to be a Hindu revivalist.

Background

Ram Nath Kovind was born on October 1, 1945, in Paraunkh in the state of Uttar Pradesh, British India (now India). A member of the Kori, a subcaste of the Dalit (meaning “oppressed”) caste, he belongs to the most underprivileged caste in India. He was one of eight children. His mother, Kalawati, died when he was young; his father, Maiku Lal, farmed and ran a grocery store. Kovind earned bachelor’s degrees in commerce and law from Kanpur University.

Kovind’s original career plan was to join India’s civil services. Despite passing the exam on his third try, he decided to become a lawyer. He was admitted to the bar in 1971 and began practicing law through the Free Legal Aid Society in Delhi, where he provided his services pro bono to vulnerable and impoverished people. From 1971 to 1975 and in 1981, he worked as the general secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Koli Samaj, an organization that provided services to the Kori subcaste. In 1977 he became the personal assistant to Morarji Desai, a pro-independence activist who had been jailed for his political activities, cofounded the Janata Party, and was elected prime minister in 1977. Kovind held this position through 1978.

Kovind practiced law for sixteen years in the High and Supreme Courts, spending about three years as a union government advocate in the Delhi High Court (1977–79) and thirteen years as the union government standing counsel in the Supreme Court (1980–93). He also was the advocate-on-record of the Supreme Court in 1978.

Political Career

Kovind joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1991 and soon became active within the party’s organization. He formed a close association with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindu nationalist group that is widely believed to be the behind-the-scenes power of the BJP and served as president of the BJP Dalit wing from 1998 to 2002.

After twice running unsuccessfully for a seat in the Rajya Sabha, India’s upper house of parliament, Kovind won a seat in 1994 representing Uttar Pradesh. He was reelected to a second six-year term and served until 2006. During his time in parliament, Kovind served on several committees, including the Welfare of Scheduled Castes/Tribes, the Home Affairs, Law and Justice, and the Social Justice and Empowerment Committees. He was a member of the Indian delegation to the United Nations in 2002, where he addressed the General Assembly.

Appointed by then-president Pranab Mukherjee, Kovind became the governor of Bihar in August 2015. Kovind soon earned a reputation for his unassuming manner and nonconfrontational style. His achievements include establishing a judicial commission to investigate staffing, promotion, and financial irregularities in universities. Kovind resigned as governor on June 20, 2017, following his nomination by the BJP as its presidential candidate. Indian parliamentarians and state legislators voted on July 17, 2017, and the results were announced three days later. Kovind defeated Meira Kumar, another Dalit, and won the presidency, taking 65.7 percent of the votes. He took office on July 25, 2017.

As president, Kovind had limited governing authority and served a primarily ceremonial role. His roles included serving as the commander-in-chief of the military, sending legislation back to parliament for reconsideration, advising parliamentarians, choosing whether to dissolve parliament and hold elections, and serving as India’s chief diplomat. For instance, he visited the Kumar military post in Siachen in May 2018, reappointed DBJP party leader Narendra Modi as prime minister in May 2019, and hosted the heads of nine countries, including the United States, in 2019 and early 2020. He also visited more than two dozen countries in his first three years in office.

Kovind made headlines, however, for allowing the passage of controversial pieces of legislation. In December 2019, he assented to the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, granting Indian citizenship to religious refugees from neighboring Muslim nations. Critics argued the law was discriminatory, as it made religion a criterion for citizenship for the first time and excluded Muslims from eligibility; protests were organized in the northeastern states near Bangladesh, an area with a high immigrant population. In September of the following year, members of the opposition urged Kovind to remand three farm bills to the parliament, saying that proper procedures had not been followed and the bills were unconstitutionally passed. However, he assented to all three.

Amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020, Kovind took a 30 percent salary cut to aid with the pandemic response, encouraged cost-saving measures at the presidential residence, and urged cooperation between governors and state governments.

Kovind stepped down as president in 2022. He was succeeded by Droupadi Murmu. In 2023, Kovind was named head of the "One Nation, One Election" committee. The committee was intended to suggest changes to India's constitution regarding simultaneous polls.

Impact

Following Ram Nath Kovind’s election to the presidency, some media sources heralded the occasion by citing it as a victory for Dalits and other marginalized individuals in India. Many political observers, Indians, and media sources, however, noted that Kovind’s ascension to the presidency had been engineered by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a political move to garner support among Dalit voters. The BJP, which became the ruling party in 2014, is widely perceived as a party of upper-caste Brahmins, who are predominantly Hindus and intolerant of Dalits and Muslims. Beginning in 2014, there was a marked upswing in violence against members of lower-caste minorities, such as mobs beating and even killing Muslims and Dalits. Hindus consider cattle to be sacred and prohibit harming them, while Dalits have historically eaten beef after disposing of dead cattle, a task the caste traditionally performed. Because the Dalits make up a considerable portion of India’s voters, the BJP nominated Kovind, a Dalit, as outreach to this sizable segment of voters to change voter perceptions and gain Dalit votes in the 2019 elections.

Despite trying to position itself as an advocate for the poor and nominating a Dalit for president, the BJP had failed to make significant inroads into gaining Dalit support by the start of 2019. In state elections in December 2018, there was widespread opposition to the BJP, with BJP candidates losing the vote and BJP incumbents voted out of office in several states. Despite Kovind’s assertion he would be a champion for Dalits, little had improved for them. Poverty and food price deflation in heavily Dalit-populated districts remained high, while wages and earning opportunities remained low. Kovind served as president of India until 2022, when he was replaced by Droupadi Murmu.

Personal Life

Kovind and Savita Kovind have been married since May 30, 1974. They have two children, Prashant Kumar and Swati. Kovind’s personal interests include yoga, reading, and travel.

Bibliography

Ganapathy, Nirmala. “The Farmer’s Son Who Rose to be India’s President.” The Straits Times, 21 July 2017, www.straitstimes.com/asia/south-asia/the-farmers-son-who-rose-to-be-indias-president. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

“India Picks BJP-Backed Politician as New President.” Al Jazeera, 20 July 2017, www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/07/india-picks-bjp-backed-leader-president-170720142940706.html. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

“India’s President Ram Nath Kovind Takes Oath.” Al Jazeera, 25 July 2017, www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/07/india-president-ram-nath-kovind-takes-oath-170725074458219.html. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

Najar, Nida. “India Picks Ram Nath Kovind, of Caste Once Called ‘Untouchables,’ as President.” The New York Times, 20 July 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/07/20/world/asia/india-dalit-president-ram-nath-kovind.html. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

“Profile of the President.” The Rashtrapati Bhavan, presidentofindia.nic.in/profile.htm. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

Ramachandran, Smriti Kak. "Union Cabinet Approves Kovind Panel's Report on 'One Nation, One Election.'" Hindustan Times, 18 Sept. 2024, www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/union-cabinet-approves-kovind-panel-s-report-one-nation-one-election-101726654652568.html. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

Roy, Sourav, and Liz Mathew. “Ram Nath Kovind: The Promise, and the President.” The Indian Express, 26 July 2022, indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/ram-nath-kovind-the-promise-and-the-president-8051020/. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

Safi, Michael. “Member of India’s Lowest Caste Expected to Be Elected President.” The Guardian, 17 July 2017, www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/17/india-ram-nath-kovind-dalit-caste-presidential-election. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

Siddiqui, Zeba. “President Ram Nath Kovind Disregards Protests, Signs Citizenship Bill into Law.” Reuters, 13 Dec. 2019, www.reuters.com/article/india-citizenship/president-ram-nath-kovind-disregards-protests-signs-citizenship-bill-into-law-idINKBN1YH0KN. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024. ‌