Droupadi Murmu a.k.a. Puti Biranchi Tudu is a 15th and current president of India serving since 25th July 2022. She is a second female president after Pratibha Patil. Her presidentship is an extraordinary feat for a woman belonging to an indigenous community in India. She has had a steady political career before as a governor of Jharkhand. She was nominated by BJP-led coalition National Democratic Alliance. Her personal tragedy of losing family members and overcoming it has become a frequent description of her perseverance to combat the patriarchal and casteist Indian society.
Her story is an inspiration for every child, irrespective of their social strata, can now dare to dream and manifest a brighter future.
Is Droupadi Murmu possible “rubber stamp” president?
The role of a president as quoted by former first prime minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is “a head that neither reigns nor governs”. He meant that the role of president is largely ceremonial. It is a euphemism for a rubber stamp president. The president is the first citizen of India and first commander of army. However, the president does have the right to advise the council of ministers on proposed bills and pardon death row convicts. The President also holds special power to dismiss the inefficient governors and chief ministers of state and declare war on the advice of the council of ministers and prime minister.
The Republic of India has been a witness to diverse president-prime minister equations. The question of her being a pliable president is still lingering. She has shown having her mind of her own by rejecting amending Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act. These acts were meant to protect the tribal communities’ land rights during commercial exploitation of forests. One can state that she is more likely to use her presidentship to be the voice of disenfranchised community. However, in her governance , there wasn’t much change in the tribal community’s condition. One could also counter that her “reputed” nature to be soft-spoken and unassuming will make her more restrained and compliant in signing all the proposed bills or policies. These arguments are more likely to be “perceptual”. One can’t be distracted by such arguments as it detracts from the main question “why she became the president?”
Presidential election – De-caste politics
The president according to Article 54 is elected by elected members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The president of India is elected through proportional representation using the means of the single transferable vote. It encourages meritocracy where the deserving candidate is a given a chance irrespective of social cleavage they belong to. However, one can’t take it at face value. Her presidential nomination was considered in 2017 but instead, the BJP-NDA nominated Ramnath Kovind, a Dalit party leader. The proportional representation voting system is slightly dubious because it works on value of vote based on 1971 population census of each Indian state the MLAs and MPs represent. It means that some voters are likely to be over-represented. For example, Uttar Pradesh before it was divided into both Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand had 88,340,000 population and current MLAs and MPs majorly represented NDA thus there will be high chances that an NDA nominated president is going to likely win. The single transferable vote system provides majority to the nominee thus she is obviously going to be a clear winner.
It is important to understand that these candidates belong to the most marginalised communities, scheduled caste and scheduled tribes. Their nomination is to revamp their image as a typical right-wing party that panders to the upper echelon of society.
Caste-based politics, apart from religion-based politics, is sectarian politics played by both the leading political parties, BJP and Congress. The BJP government committed a mistake by proposing dilution of the Schedule caste and Tribe act in 2018 which hurt the sentiments of the both the communities. The act was meant to protect the community from atrocities. In an attempt to appease to the community’s anger, it started becoming a more socially inclusive party to represent all social cleavages’ interests. The political party in an attempt to redeem themselves in 2019 elections started wooing the tribal and Dalit communities to position the party as annihilator of caste-based politics.
The caste narratives are not only peddled by the ruling government. The Congress party leader, Ajoy Kumar’s statement on Droupadi Murmu’s nomination: that the tribal community “represents an evil philosophy of India”. He stated in his attempt to promote the opposition party’s candidate, Yashwant Sinha and suggest that he had no qualms about a Dalit president, Ramnath Kovind. These narratives reek of a colonial past where the tribal community still faced discrimination. These narratives are often a catalyst for the ruling government to engage in taking hyperbolic jibes with the opposing government on such statements.
These narratives from influential figures along with other main drivers such as having clear majority of members in both the houses and need to improve its equation with tribal and Dalit community are reasons why she became the president.
Conclusion
The role of caste-based politics remains huge in today’s India and affectes the organisation of the electoral college voting system. Questions remain as to her pliancy as a president with limited knowledge based largely on her tenure as a governor of Jharkhand. We have tried our level best to not fall under the trap of putting her on a pedestal or be unnecessarily critical of her. We have tried to present facts in the most objective way. No one is really yet in a position to judge whether her presidentship will be included as an unforgettable chapter of Indian political history.
